Lanham: PBK nod to UH affirms the value of a liberal arts education

Hosting a chapter of this venerable organization - founded a scant six months after the American colonies declared their independence from Britain - is a coveted thing in higher education and represents a well-deserved tribute to the quality of UH's undergraduate education in the arts and sciences.

News of this laurel also offers the occasion, once again, to champion the cause PBK promotes: the value of a liberal education.

Given the current job market, especially for new college grads, I understand why students and parents might question the idea of majoring in English or history or mathematics or political science or the other disciplines subsumed under the umbrella of a "liberal education."

In my 16 years as books editor for the Houston Chronicle, I conducted hundreds of author interviews, with the likes of astrophysicist Carl Sagan, statesman Henry Kissinger, writer and critic John Updike, novelist Sandra Cisneros, and bioethicist Dr. Sherwin Nuland, to pick five at random.

A liberal education has another important value, one that sometimes gets lost in the worried debate over how to produce college graduates who can get and keep a job.