We’re often dismayed that when policy makers discuss higher education it’s usually in terms of “workforce development” and “high employer demand” fields. Engineering and computer science are important, and maybe teaching and nursing. But what are you going to do with that English degree?
Ryan Crocker, Whitman 1971. Former ambassador to Iraq, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, English lit. major. Whitman College photo.
That’s counter to what we hear from employers, who are looking for people who are critical thinkers, creative problem solvers, and effective communicators. Those are just the sorts of skills that students hone at ICW member colleges, which offer a broad-based education, grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, that emphasizes lifelong learning, ethcs, leadership, and community service.
George Bridges, the president of Whitman College, has a great example of this that he wrote about in a newspaper column last year. Bridges notes that Whitman alum Ryan Crocker, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, got his first job with the Foreign Service in large part because he was a great communicator and was able to tell the interview panel how Edgar Allen Poe had influenced the French poet Charles Baudelaire. Crocker graduated from Whitman in 1971 with a degree in English literature, and has just retired after a 38-year career in foreign service.
I was reminded of this because Crocker was back on campus as Whitman’s commencement speaker last weekend. In his address, titled “Lessons From a Long War,” Crocker urged students to “march to the guns,” to seek out challenges and conflicts in a difficult world. Today’s Crosscut has a fine piece by Anthony B. Robinson about Crocker’s speech. You can watch a video of the speech on Whitman’s Web site.
Pretty good stuff for an English major!
