There is an opinion war raging in the educational field these days and the generals are surprisingly two former college dropouts; technological and entrepreneurial geniuses, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple.

On the one hand, Gates seems to hold the view that the investment of funds in a college education demands a field of study emphasis on work-related learning...on study of specific fields and skills that are demanded in the workplace today. Gates seems to hold the idea that technology is an end in itself. He has proposed using technology already available to analyze and decode the education system with an eye toward improving its productivity as one might improve the productivity of an assembly line.

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On the other hand, Jobs seems to hold a more holistic view of education. He states in beautiful, poetic terms that the marriage of technology and the humanities "yields a result that makes our hearts sing." Jobs' philosophy is to allow technology to provide students with an ability to multi-task and experiment with many fields in order to creatively chart their own educational course. As a web surfer leaps from one idea to the next to the next...the Jobs' philosophy seems to hold that education should be a stream of consciousness, embraced by the individual and ridden like a wave to see what epiphany waits on the beach. Technology in the Jobs' vision is just a tool to achieve the educational goals of the individual.

While both fully embrace the need for innovation, Gates believes the use of technology to improve education will spawn more technological innovation which can be used to further improve education so that technological innovation can occur so, well, you get the idea. It is a closed, circular system that will ultimately expand the technological knowledge of the human race...but which does not allow for the creative leap...the burst of imagination that can reform and expand the circle exponentially. The approach favored by Jobs allows for just this type of dramatic leaps of creative thought that can blow apart the steady circle of technological innovation favored by Gates. And yet, the Jobs' approach, for all of its potential for dramatic progress, is held back by its very nature. The flashes of brilliance will come...but these ideas arrive more like tsunamis than the regular wavelike pattern of the patient, stolid building of one idea upon the other.

But, like the Nationwide spokesperson says,"and, on the other hand," perhaps the actual answer lies somewhere in between.

I would suggest that there is a need for both the Jobs' and Gates' points of view. Every human being is blessed with a learning style...but all learning styles are not created equal. Just as left-brained individuals thrive on a regular and orderly course of education where one concept leads on to another and another; those working from their right brain often can see the interrelationships of concepts that are not readily apparent based on their natural order. We need to nourish both styles. The technician must be willing and able to step outside of the proverbial "box" to make innovation happen and...the creative thinker must be able to order his ideas to the point that they are understandable and useable.

Is a liberal arts education a luxury? Absolutely not! While the use of a degree in philosopy or art or anthropology is not readily apparent or measurable in our increasingly technological world...the ideas nurtured in the study of an eclectic mix of disciplines will ultimately bear fruit by igniting ideas that might be missed in the orderly progression of study demanded in vocational education. Vocational education might be the brain for future innovation...but a liberal arts education is its soul.