Giving Compass' Take:

• The American College of the Building Arts is a small but mighty institution that incorporates craftsmanship courses such as blacksmithing and masonry into a liberal arts education. 

• How effective is this type of blended learning? Is this increasing accessibility to education for some students?

• The uptick in entrepreneurism and vocational training is a trend we are seeing now in higher education.

Innovation and entrepreneurism, these are strains of the American Dream. That dream is simple: to be self-employed, to own your own business, to be answerable to customers and not to bosses, as well as to make a better living and to enjoy the benefits of the tax system that favors business.

When I first learned of a small college — minuscule, you might say, because there are fewer than 100 students — in Charleston, S.C., I was gladdened— and when I learned that about a third of its graduates had gone on to start their own small businesses, I was ecstatic.

The institution is the American College of the Building Arts. Its mission is not to create entrepreneurs, but to meld together trade crafts and liberal arts.

Entrepreneurism is a byproduct, an unexpected bonus.

The combining of the liberal arts with skilled artistry is a potent concept at a time when there is an extreme shortage of craftsmen, and a real dearth of those who reach the master level, both men and women.

About a third of the student body at ACBA are women. In two days reporting at the college, I found women doing complex forgings in the blacksmithing department, chiseling stone in the masonry classes, and doing timber-frame construction.

The same students, away from the forges, chisels, hammers and saws are to be found studying Charles Dickens’ “Hard Times” and the Industrial Revolution or puzzling over Palladian concepts in the architectural drawing class.

Read the full article about the new education by Llewellyn King at InsideSources