Best vocational school? Students and parents should consider a liberal-arts education.

Every college education should be vocational education. That sounds weird, doesn't it? When we think about vocational education we think about narrow job training. That's because Americans have allowed the idea of vocational training to get stolen from them.

The word vocation comes

from the Latin vocare--to call--and traditionally has referred to a vocation or a "calling" that is your life's work, what you were somehow meant to do and be in your life. In that sense, all of us ought to hope that our children will have a "vocational" education. It's the best we can hope for those we love.

I believe in that richer sense, far more students and parents should be considering a liberal-arts education because it is targeted at providing one with a powerful vocation. How?

* By introducing students to a wide variety of disciplines of study, they are likely to find their truly meaningful life's work, one that leads them to greater achievements than mere professional training. At Earlham College in Richmond, for example, one out of every nine graduates goes on to earn a Ph.D.

* The best liberal-arts colleges hire and hold onto teachers who have fire in their eyes for the importance of their discipline. These teachers help students fall in love with the best that has been taught and known. That builds a powerful foundation for a career.

* Good liberal-arts colleges provide the basic skills that ensure success in any professional field--critical thinking, elegant writing, effective speaking and the ability to assess good arguments and be open to new ways of thinking.

For all of the reasons above, it is not surprising that the nation's leading liberal-arts colleges provide a vastly disproportionate share of America's college professors, research scientists and medical doctors, not to mention a goodly representation of corporate executives, governmental leaders, writers, editors and assorted arts and culture heroes.

Another thing, the best liberal-arts colleges provide more of the kinds of experiences that are associated with higher achievement. These include close contact with professors and collaborative learning. As Earlham's admissions dean, Jeff Rickey, is fond of saying, "At a small college you don't need to be a music major to sing in the choir. You don't need to be a journalism major to write for the school newspaper, and you don't need to be a theater major to perform in a play."

Liberal-arts education is the principal mission of most of the private, smaller colleges. It's precisely because they are small that they can manage to offer more in more places. Did you know that twice as many students at liberal-arts colleges than at large public universities study abroad sometime during their undergraduate years? At some of the national liberal-arts colleges half or more of the student body will spend a semester or more in a foreign country. Small colleges are places with wide horizons,

That could be especially important to an 18-year-old who doesn't know what be or she wants to "do" for a life's work and is understandably afraid of closing off too many opportunity doors before having a chance to look inside. Besides, in the age we now live in, young people may expect to have two, three, even four different careers ahead of them. The liberal arts are preparation for variety as well as specialty. They build a life of choice, of freedom.

Len Clark is provost and academic dean at Earlham College, Richmond.