(Credit: AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File) When it comes to current debates in politics and policy, even a strident defense of the liberal arts – such as George Anders’s “You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Education” or Randall Stross’s “A Practical Education: Why Liberal Arts Majors Make Great Employees” – tends to accept that gainful employment is the chief aim of education. As a specialist in the 20th-century philosopher and educator John Dewey, I’ve been watching these debates with interest.