No, it isn't time to kill the liberal arts degree. It never will be that time. Even if only a tiny fraction of the college student body majors in something besides business-related subjects, there's always going to have to be some people around with the knowledge to remind all the others what lies at the core of us: our humanity. And that's what the humanities are all about, aren't they?
It appears that we're moving inexorably into an era where the accursed marketplace will call all the tunes. Everything will be judged by same criterion: does it help or hinder business. Are you ready for this world? I fear, despite my fervent wishes otherwise and all my instincts, that is the world we have already entered. As if to confirm it, I ran across another blog today that I will be reading regularly--yet another! (I can't keep up with all of them now.)--called "The Leibowitz Society"--by the way, if you've never read Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, your life is woefully incomplete--anyway this blog is dedicated to the preservation of knowledge for the rebuilding that will be necessary after the coming Dark Age. And this piece, coincidentally the first I've ever read there, concerns this very subject of liberal arts degrees.
Remember yesterday when I was talking about Ms Kim Brooks, the author of the piece that set off these ramblings? And I said I did totally dismiss her out of hand? This was because after several hundreds of words arguing that it was indeed time to kill the liberal arts degree, she ended up saying that she would not trade her education in English, and all that poetry, fiction, and theory, for anything. Which doesn't necessarily mean she would do it all over again if she were starting today, but even with 20-20 rearview vision, she cannot bring herself to say what she learned was useless. I sure as hell can't. Either for her or for me.
4 comments:
I loved A Canticle for Leiobowitz; I read it in high school, I think... a long time ago.
It is hard to say what a liberal arts education is good for... until you spend some time talking to folks who did not receive one, yet presume to lecture you on art, values, and philosophy.
I wish I had the time to go back and read all those wonderful sf books I used to devour back when all I did with my life was read.
You actually meet people who want to lecture you on art and philosophy? Where? Values, well of course, everybody wants to lecture you about values, i.e., why theirs are right and yours are wrong.
one of the glories of being a teacher is that you can sometimes get to students' minds. i ran into a student i'd had about 10 years ago, and he talked about how often he thought about me, b/c what i taught him in that particular course was the usefulness of thinking, and never accepting anything as a given, but questioning. he was so fervent! ironically it was in a course i never liked teaching and never felt i did well in. obviously, i did well on one level, at least.
Congratulations on making that impression, Karen. That's a lifetime victory for you and cause of critical thinking. No small achievement.
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