Students Need Practical Skills Along with Big Ideas
By Jennifer Johnson Higher education is not known for its pragmatism. For every course in biology basics there”s another in “The Science of Superheroes” (University of California, Irvine). For every Spanish 101 there”s “Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond” (University of Texas at Austin). For every fundamentals of accounting, there”s “Street-Fighting Mathematics” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). And that”s OK. As the cliché goes, part of being educated is “learning how to learn.” There”s value in interacting with ideas simply for the sake of enrichment, even without any immediate vocational payoff. But Dave Miller at Nebraska Christian College also makes a good







