Fareed Zakaria speaks to liberal approach in education

Everyone has their own perception of the American dream, according to Fareed Zakaria. For the CNN host of "Fareed Zakaria GPS" and weekly columnist for the Washington Post, it was held in the opening sequence of "Dallas." It was in the steel and brass, cloud-touching skyscrapers. It was the men who drove Cadillacs and it was women like Victoria Principal.

Zakaria spoke Oct. 5 in the Show Me Center as part of Southeast Missouri State University's 2015-2016 Speaker Series. His presentation titled "In Defense of a Liberal Education" discussed American confidence.

"I'm particularly happy to come here because I feel that, at a place like this, the mission and the ideas that I'm trying to get across are even more important because you hear so much these days about the need for a job-based education, the need for skills that will get you a job, the need for technical training, the need for pre-based skills," Zakaria said. "All of this is true, but I feel as though in doing so the American government [has become] very nervous, very anxious, and we've lost perspective and, basically, we've actually lost confidence, which is a very unnerving thing for me to see because, see, I'm an immigrant."

Zakaria learned about America growing up in India in the 1960s and 1970s. It was through shows like "Dallas" he came to see America as a hub of "wealth and opulence."

"For me, the thing I remember most about the sense of America was its confidence, the bold brashness of America compared to the old world," Zakaria said.

He came out of that "old world" with a narrowly-tailored education. Zakaria said in 10th grade every student within the system was tested, screened, and based off the results of that screening, was placed in respective courses. There were three categories: science, commerce and humanities.

"Basically what would happen is the rich kids would take commerce, the smart kids would take science, and I hate to say it, but the girls would take humanities," Zakaria said.

So when Zakaria came to America for college on scholarship, he enrolled in classes he felt he was supposed to take as a "smart kid," those heavy in business, math and computer science concentrations. He took only one course in history his first year at Yale University, but soon found he liked it. On top of that, he discovered he was rather good at it. Within that year's time, Zakaria said the balance shifted, broadening his scope to push his educational capacities.

"For me, this whole discussion is somewhat personal because I've seen both sides, and I understand how important it is to ignite your passion, to ignite a sense that you're doing something that you enjoy doing, that doesn't feel like work," Zakaria said. "Ultimately, you're only going to be good at it if you really feel like it."

Zakaria said Americans have grown worrisome with a consistency in lower test scores compared to the results of other countries. What is now known as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has been a study of worldwide student performance since 1963. Each time, the United States has scored significantly lower than northern European and Asian countries.

"So I think to myself, 'Wait a minute, if you ask yourself from 1963, what country has dominated the world of science, technology, research, higher education, entrepreneurship, economics and business, that would be the United States," Zakaria said.

He posed the question, "How is it that we're doing so badly on these tests and so well in life?" Zakaria stressed ideas regarding entrepreneurship and economic growth are large in conceptualization, and a student's mastery of test-taking won't determine success in either of those areas later in life.

"The idea that knowing whether somebody who's 15, whether a 15-year-old boy or girl, will do well at quadratic equations compared to some other 15-year-old may not be the single most definitive predictor of innovation, economic success and creativity," Zakaria said.

Zakaria said people succeed in life by stepping outside of comfort zones, not because of standardized test scores.

"Test-taking and success are very different," Zakaria said. "Test-taking is a low-risk occupation, succeeding in life requires taking risks. Test-taking is a following-rules occupation, succeeding in life is often a breaking-rules occupation."

Dr. Gary Johnson, the interim dean of Southeast's Donald L. Harrison College of Business who attended the lecture, agreed with Zakaria, but noted there was fine line to deviating from structure.

"I believe that the education system can only do so much and intellect drives much of what is considered successful, in most societies," Johnson said.

Engineers still need disciplines of math and science to work within the ever-changing, technology-booming field.

However, Zakaria said even computers can't do what people are capable of. People succeed because they're good at what they do, but also because they relate and connect to others.

"The reason people succeed in business is because they understand business, they understand technology, but most importantly, they understand human beings," Zakaria said.