Education For Profit, Education For Democracy, By Martha Nussbaum

Engineering is widely regarded as not only a rigorous course of study, but also as a centerpiece for the development of the industrialized world. As the global market becomes increasingly competitive, institutions of higher education around the world continually make efforts to prepare their students for the quickly-advancing field of engineering. Through different approaches, countries around the world succeed and through their efforts we advance as a global society in our technology. Of the many approaches taken to education, one discussed by Martha Nussbaum in her piece, Education for Profit, Education for Democracy as the “single-subject model,” is characterized as an education that is structured and focuses for the most part on developing only one area of study. While it is subject to criticism by Nussbaum, it is well-worth considering how thorough structure, subject-focused study, and specified funding are assets to the …show more content…
She argues that institutions of higher education are failing students in streamlining them towards specific areas of study, depriving them of a well-rounded education that would enrich their character and, in turn, foster a successful democracy. While this is a reasonable argument, there must be something about the single-subject model of education that justifies its continued use. Nussbaum speaks bleakly about the structure of education in the Indian technical school she observed, but given that the single-subject model is instituted there to such a great extent, the educators who put it in place must have recognized some merit in the structure. She rejects the notion that the single-subject model of education leads to economic growth quite justly with the example of a third-world country. It is worth considering, then, what the merits of the single-subject model are, and how it may function in a first-world