Complexity - Part 2

I had lunch with a student who graduated from Houghton (and ROTC) this year. I found him to be thoughtful and articulate. I asked him what courses he'd taken here that had informed him about his upcoming military service, and once he began to answer, he could hardly stop: just about every liberal arts discipline found itself in his answer. And those that he omitted from his own journey, he claimed would be useful to someone in the military, depending on his or her role.

I asked if he found it difficult to reconcile the Gospel message with the Army message. He replied that if he simply considered himself as an individual, then he could never reconcile the two. But he suggested that because the army is an institution in service to a nation-state, then he is not simply "an individual in the Army". And while this does not fully satisfy him when he thinks about his role in the military as a Christian, it does matter somehow.

He said something intriguing about the liberal arts: the breadth of classes one takes at a school like this, he suggested, makes one better able to respond carefully and articulately in diverse situations. So, even though one might not use a particular language or certain art skills or knowledge of biology in one's work, the study of these matters prepares a person to cope with new challenges.

I don't much like his comment because it rings true, while it flies in the face of what I'd like for our integrative studies program--namely, a little less scattered breadth, and more focus.