On one hand, I totally agree with you. Despite that fact that I don't "use" it everyday, I think my liberal arts education (both in high school and college) was immensely useful in teaching me how to think.

On the other hand, done properly something like this could become a fine mentor/apprenticeship program for kids that don't want to follow the typical college route.

I guess it's easy to be reactionary about this piece because the author is so flippant about the uses of things outside of programming, and the fact that his enthusiasm seems to over-shadow his daughter's.