Integrated learning. Passing fad or foundation for the future?

On the surface, higher education has served the nation well. An increasing percentage of adults have attended college. Information is widely and freely available to most citizens; the economy is steady; and technological developments appear to offer ever-increasing improvements in the quality of life. Looking just beneath the surface, though, one realizes that knowledge is fragmented, access to knowledge is not universal, and there are no guarantees that past successes will sustain the future. Thus, it is worth examining how higher learning has contributed to the general prosperity and how education might evolve to address society's evident problems. This essay discusses the core approach of liberal arts in the context of the value--and obstacles--of integration across the traditional disciplines. Critical to the natural sciences is a firm grounding in the central importance of rigorous evidence, while the humanities keep us rooted in the importance of human values. Seeking linkages and connections between these realms is the lively challenge of this conference. The details of curricular design will be of less interest at this juncture than locating the critical issues and discussing how education might serve the goal of unifying knowledge and learning.