The Lion's Pride Volume 9 (January 2018) | Page 10

adapt to changing job demands and, for that matter, changing jobs over a
lifetime” as well as “dealing with an increasingly competitive
international labor pool.” Employers want an employee who is a jack of
all trades, who can move fluidly through the ever-changing modern
work world. General education prepares the employee of the modern
globalized world.
Further, globalization tends to come with changing technology and
melding cultures, requiring individuals to be able to adapt to the new
global environment. A person who has a variety of skills, especially
communication and analytical skills, can adapt to these changes more
easily. Burbules and Torres note that globalization creates an
environment where “educational aims that have more to do with
flexibility and adaptability (for instance, in responding to rapidly
changing work demands and opportunities), with learning how to coexist
with others in diverse (and hence often conflict-riven) public spaces…all
emerge as new imperatives.” It is the flexible and communicative
individual who is going to be more successful in the global environment,
and general education creates well-rounded, adaptive individuals with
good communication skills. For instance, social science courses teach
people about human nature and human behavior, which allows a person
to more easily understand different kinds of people and societies.
Humanity courses, on the other hand, teach direct communication skills,
including speaking and writing, which make it easy for a person to