Thinking and Rethinking: The Practical Value of an Honors Education

Authors

James Herbert, Formerly of the College Board and the National Endowment for the HumanitiesFollow

Date of this Version

2015

Document Type

Article

Citation

Published in Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Fall/Winter 2015, Volume 16, Number 2.

Comments

Copyright © 2015 by the National Collegiate Honors Council.

Abstract

While teaching in the general honors program of the University of Maryland (1970–1980), I passed on a version of the education I had received in history, philosophy, literature, politics, theology, psychology, anthropology, and the other liberal arts. As I moved into another career, my situation reversed the old chestnut: I couldn’t teach, so I had to find a way to do. I had often professed that a liberal education in honors was good preparation for life. My work life ended up testing that proposition and confirming it in unexpected ways that may be illuminating to those who are now supporting or administering honors education.