In Defense Of A Liberal Education

Fareed Zakaria is the author of eight books (including Age of Revolutions), a journalist, and a political pundit. He currently hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS on the cable news network CNN and authors a column for The Washington Post. He was born in Mumbai and educated during the 1970s at a private school, the Cathedral and John Connon School, which English missionaries established during the colonial period. The economic downturn of the 1970s encouraged Zakaria’s middle-class family’s focus on career prospects, which usually centered upon the study of engineering or medicine over the humanities: “In those days the choices were obvious. The smart kids would go into science, the rich kids would go into commerce, and the girls would take the humanities” (23). Zakaria gave little critical thought to his options and chose to pursue the sciences. His educational training encouraged rote memorization but little critical reflection on the world.

US institutions of higher education began recruiting foreign students in the 1980s, offering attractive scholarships. Zakaria was amazed by the array of course options available to a friend who returned to India one summer after studying at Cornell University. Soon, Zakaria’s brother, Arshad, went to Harvard University.