The arts and engineering [Focus on Education]

We are often told, almost always by nonengineers and nonscientists, that instruction in the liberal arts and the fine arts should be an important part of the education of engineers. The position of the nontechnical person is that a liberal education will make engineers better people and better able to understand and respond to the needs of society. American Engineering students, however, are unconvinced and mostly greet such assertions with ridicule and scorn. Both sides are wrong. Exposure to the liberal and the fine arts is important to the education of engineers, but not just to make them better members of society. Such exposure is important, because it will make them better engineers.