What is the Importance of a Liberal Education?

Chapter 1

• "A majority of people are specializing in fields because they see them as directly related to the job market" (18).

Chapter 2

• Zakaria mentions the importance of "exposing students to scientific methods rather than scientific facts so that--whatever their ultimate major--they are aware of the way in which science works" (68).

Chapter 3

• "A liberal arts education teaches you to acquire knowledge on your own" (78).

Chapter 4

• "The potential of online education is dazzling. Anyone, no matter how rich or poor, young or old, Haitian or Mongolian, can access the world's best courses, watch the greatest lectures, and study those subjects he or she has always dreamed about" (128).

Chapter 5

• Zakaria states that the knowledge gained over the past few hundred years has caused people to "enjoy longer and healthier lives, possess greater material prosperity, and are organized in ways that have reduced cruelty and misery" (140).

Chapter 6

• "One of the higher achievements of the liberal democratic project is surely that people today can spend less time worrying about revolution and war and focus instead on building a private sphere within which they can find meaning, fulfillment, and happiness" (168).

Zakaria's Argument

• Zakaria builds a compelling argument by first addressing our culture's view of liberal education as irrelevant, and then arguing its importance in society. However his argument often digresses from his main idea, like in chapter 4, as he goes of on tangents that don't connect to what he is currently discussing.