Speech communication plays a significant role in a liberal arts education. Studying and practicing oral communication constitutes direct inquiry into the social and psychological features of social life and survival and presents reality phenomena more directly and emphatically than do writing or other types of communication. Such direct social learning balances the many depersonalized aspects in social life by addressing attention to what people do and create. Anyone involved in public speaking, acting, small group problem solving, interpreting literature orally, or studying speaking disabilities will confront the ways people make, revise, and sometimes destroy social organization. The social goals of liberal education have been described as making students aware of how society functions, the forces shaping its future, and its alternatives and problems. Oral communication is practice in adjusting to, shaping, and creating social systems and being active in social change. Liberal education ought to aid people to see themselves and their surroundings clearly and realistically. Those who study and teach oral communication have ideal opportunities to open young minds to the social and aesthetic criteria that clarify what is relevant and central. (HTH)