No. 1 skill
Regarding Gov. Pat McCrory’s comments devaluing liberal arts education and UNC-Chapel Hill: As a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a liberal arts degree, I know firsthand the value of training in gender studies, a field McCrory openly attacked in his statement.
No skill is more pivotal in obtaining and excelling in a career than critical thinking and writing. Through gender studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, I learned to think on my own, defend my ideas through writing and research, and, most importantly, to question.
With a solely skills-based education, our students will lose the ability to think, question and create ideas of their own. We will lose the very creativity and imagination that drive innovation and the modern economy! We need great thinkers in North Carolina. Our future economy and country will depend on people who can see things differently and offer new ideas for old problems.
Because of gender studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, I learned to ask different questions and to envision new possibilities. I learned to never accept the status quo and to always leave room for innovation and reinterpretation. In my professional work, no skill has been more valuable.
Billy Kluttz
Concord
