An interesting article in the Times documents the efforts to provide some job training to liberal arts majors, mostly by allowing them to take business and law courses for credit.

Most interesting for me were the efforts of resistance mentioned in the article:

But while some see these courses as a sensible extra that will ultimately help protect the liberal arts degree, some liberal arts educators vehemently oppose the idea of trying squeeze professional training into students' schedules.

Anthony Marx, the president of Amherst College, said that if students had more time they should "go deeper into the liberal arts, because that is the seed corn of an intellectual life and informed citizenship."

"To dilute the power of the liberal arts with premature professionalism will deprive our society of the thoughtful leadership it needs," Mr. Marx added

Thoughtful leadership? Mr. Marx needs to figure out what percentage of graduates end up actually being leaders -- and what percentage end up waiting tables. My observations indicate there is a lot more of the latter than of the former.

(link via Newmark's Door)