[alexwestholm]

The trend of focused education has arisen in tandem with ever increasing numbers of people entering the workforce. In that light, it's hard to argue that specialization isn't hard - not only is it difficult to train people to be generalists, it's also difficult to hire them, and why bother if you're just looking for a disposable entry level warm-body? The kind of general savvy required to interact well with across disciplines isn't that hard to cultivate, and many top schools do, but it's probably not feasible for the sort that attend trade schools like the one mentioned.

Not only would this be a strained approach for most students at such a school, but it would detract from the number one goal of trade schools: providing students with skills that can immediately secure a job. As mentioned earlier, generalists are more difficult to hire... giving a solid credential indicating that someone has base level design skills is much easier for the graduate to sell than "Sure, I can do design a fabric for you. Then I can market it and set up logistical channels to get worldwide distribution and ... all based on my time at X university!"