Posted on 12/18/2018 6:17:10 AM PST by C19fan
The great culture wars on the campuses of the 1980s were largely lost by traditionalists. And the question then became not if but when the liberal arts would die off as a result. What is strange nearly 40 years later is that the apparent outrage over what was clearly foreordained is now becoming fact. What did academia expect, given its years of academic specialization and politicized indoctrination?
Recently the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point announced plans to drop liberal-arts majors in geography, geology, French, German, two- and three-dimensional art — and history. The Atlantic ran a well-meaning essay by Adam Harris on the controversial move, “The Liberal Arts May Not Survive the 21st Century” — again, a topic much in the news recently. The article’s chief thrust is that insidious efforts to promote STEM vocationalism — the need to prepare young people for careers requiring extensive math and science skill sets — has driven out the need for more in-depth focus on the liberal arts, in a climate in which crass Republican state legislators, in allegedly vindictive and short-sighted fashion, demanded catastrophic cuts in state public higher-education budgets.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
This is an important point you are making.
I remember a couple of decades ago thinking the future would go like this: Colleges offer courses online and the students would never have to go to the “brick and mortar” facility at all. They would have direct access to the teachers there and take their paid courses online, perhaps with live lectures online as well as live, in-person interviews with their professor.
But it’s not happening that way. Instead, we are all getting the best of the best in podcasts, youtube videos, etc. as well as the written material offered for free all over the internet. And unlike a live lecture, you can stop, rewind and repeat a youtube video or podcast. And don’t forget all those videos showing how the physical world works with very clear video presentations using computer graphics. It’s how I learned, in ridiculous detail, how a torque converter on a car works.
So, we now end up with a legion of people with huge, but also uneven, knowledge in various fields just from their exposure on the internet and no shingle to prove they know anything. Yet they do.
So, in a way it’s a LOT better for the students or those that want to acquire this knowledge from truly experienced teachers, but it also creates uneven and unreliable results. The good news is that those that truly do learn and have the aptitude can percolate to the surface through competitions, internships, etc.
The brick and mortar university is a dead paradigm walking.
“Hey Hey Ho Ho Western Civ Has Got to Go!”
One can only hope it is so. I remember trying to schedule classes I needed around my works hours.
It seems as though all higher education facilities have a perverse way of setting up classes to make it nearly impossible for one to put together a schedule that makes sense for real people.
Being able to review a class online at any time of day (or night) and do, and submit, homework online at your leisure is the future (I hope)...
Bkmk for history info
A degree is sooo much more than the knowledge learned in class. It’s proof of many positive things all employers are looking for. The ability to follow through, show up, be on time, be organized, overcome challenges, work with others, and the ability to learn in general along with many others. In many ways... the information I learned in my classes was the least important thing I learned at college.
I love C-Span 3 on the weekends for American History.
No one is going to hire a network administrator because they can quote Shakespeare. Yet that’s what they have to do if they want a Computer Science degree. It’s ridiculous, and is only designed to take money away from already struggling students. Liberal arts are killing education.
Also there are many podcasts and YouTube channels for any field in the humanities one is interested in. Dan Carlin and Michael Duncan do history better than 99.9% of college professors.
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Agree. I’ve learned far more history since college. The available free resources today are astounding.
The texts are out there for free, but if all you can feel for western civilization is hatred... then they are useless. Yes, more highly acclaimed literature and history that are just laying around like forgotten, dusty relics because appreciation for high culture is already ruined for most. The barbarians are inside the gates. And they are compassionate, inclusive and equatable barbarians... unless you offend their self righteous importance and PC sensibility. And then, by the Gods of Political Correctness, your life will become a Hell.
A small, hapless viper was let into the university many years ago and it has matured, bitten the warden who protected it, and made the university a snake pit. From this Hell hole the message was sent out to the barbarians to come and attack civilization from within. We are the barbarians. The university is the Trojan Horse full of Marxist snakes (that just hire more of their kind). And it has to be metaphorically burnt down to cinders and ash and the earth salted beneath it.
Concur - I could care less about some ones grade point average, but I’ll look at the course load they took, how much time it took, if they worked part time, and did extra curricular activities. All of those tell me more than a grade point average.
When I get pushed on it by HR I use myself as an example:
averaged 20 credits/semester (Science major with a language), ended with a 2.7, mandatory extra curricular’s every semester + some volunteer work.
Now then HR am I not capable of my job based on my GPA from 20 years ago or did the workload I carry predict my performance better?
The reply I usually get is “you took 20 credits a semester? are you insane?” to which I reply “yes, a little - but don’t tell HR....ooops”
You probably weren’t being exposed to constant indoctrination efforts from the school administration on down to various campus student groups.
I didn't need to go to college and get a degree to learn that. I learned it at home and in high school.
Cynically, maybe, but most of what I learned in college was how to use buzzwords to sound like you know what you're talking about, even if you don't (and I got this from the profs)...
When I earned my BSEE at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, back in the late 60s, we were required to take a three course “penetration” into a liberal arts genre. I chose History, taking a course in Medievel European History, History from 1812 to the Present, and History of World War II.
The first course was fascinating in that it looked at the Reformation from a Secular perspective, and as a Lutheran, it was enlightening. All of these courses were valuable. Of course, back then, English was a required course, as well. Critical thought was woven into many classes.
The author accurately points out that history has devolved from its true roots to propagandizement. Higher Education in general has done the same.
And now, they are trying to invade STEM with social justice propaganda.
The Higher Education Establishment is committing suicide. STEM and trade schools will survive, and liberal arts will become a cottage industry, if somehow, we can teach individuals to learn, by the sweat of their own brows.
Sadly, that is what is missing at all levels of education (indoctrination).
Critical thought used to be critical thought.
It is my experience that several decades ago, “critical thinking” became “Marxism is always the answer”.
It's interesting that a branch of the University of Wisconsin would drop history as a major. For more than a century, the history department at main campus at Madison has been a hotbed of radicalism. Faculty members included Frederick Jackson Turner, who formulated the "frontier thesis," the notion that the Western frontier served as a social safety valve, in 1893. Charles Beard,who in 1913 argued that the US Constitution was essentially a rich man's plot and Willliam Appleman Williams, who blamed the Cold War on the US, were also prominent Badgers.
Military Academy cadets do this for four years plus their military requirement, summer deployments and athletics.
The other important thing I got from college was ... time. Time to consider what I really wanted to do in life before I got bogged down in it and woke up at 35 wondering what happened?!
Once you enter the workforce and especially if you start a family.. time can go back “very” quickly... Plus, the opportunities to meet a high-quality spouse in college alone might be worth it. I look back on all the girls from high school .. I “thought” were so amazing at the time and laugh. Even an average girl in college was far and away a better potential wife than any of the girls from high school. In hindsite.. it made everything that I had gone through in highschool seem silly. I was like.. wth was I thinking? lol
You know all those young women on magazine covers, in pageants, ect... and you wonder where they are in real life? well... they are in college just waiting for you to meet them (the good colleges). And if that’s not good enough... women “far” outnumber men in college... which shifts the odds even further in our direction. The “trick” is to choose a “good” yet conservative private university. And yes, there are still conservative universities.
#8 By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. Open, locks, Whoever knocks!
Malware!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Windows 10!
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