Facepalms and cringes: liberal education misapprehended

Many well-intentioned engineering faculty, eager to integrate engineering and liberal arts, do not seem to truly grasp the meaning and intent of liberal education. Most of us are doing it wrong, and our colleagues across campus would cringe or facepalm at our efforts. Such moments reveal our (conscious or unconscious) misapprehensions of liberal education. Reflexive engagement of these misapprehensions may be a productive site for our own liberal education.