The Liberal Arts Weren’t Murdered — They Committed Suicide

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.

“How can people vote for the Democrats? Are they really that ignorant?”

Yes.

Knowing how much thrust is required to move a load into orbit of the earth is necessary for satellite communications, but it provides no information whatsoever on how people behave.

Without some reference to fall back upon, people will listen to lies and believe that everyone feels and thinks like they do.

NASA is about dead.

This isn’t from a lack of knowledge about physics or chemistry.

It is because huge numbers of Americans were lied to and believed that the best use of NASA was to provide welfare to other nations.

The Republicans had great Political Scientists who could predict voting patterns block-by-block.

That’s good to know.

The Democrats had Sociologists and Psychologists who knew how to frighten ignorant people into voting for Democrats.

That wins elections.

Elections control money.

Money controls learning.

Yep, so did I. I learned the buzzwords in college to bs my way through the “subjective” classes. Because back then and even moreso now, those classes are subjective. My favorite college professor taught me that! He was a Libertarian who homeschooled his kids (in a college town, Penn State, back in the 80s). He homeschooled them because the education system sucked then and does now for the most part.

Like you, I didn’t need K-12 school or college to teach me 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.” I learned that at home, in grade school, and in high school, in life.

“

“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?!”

Thousands of dollars, some of it in student loans or parents paying, for time to grow up?

Sorry. I went to college, one of the first in my family (as did my brother before me) to get the credits for a degree in a major that could support myself and a family. The fun college life was certainly a part of it. Wondering what happened at 35 wasn’t a part of it. It was life, just life, since the beginning of it.

Granted, college was awesome and I learned a lot about life then went to grad school while working full time to do what I wanted for a job, but college was also much less expensive back in the 80s for a State School (Penn State).

My four kids, knew that whole “growing up” thing or “time” thing wasn’t a part of their college...pick a major where you can support yourself and a family, where you can graduate in four years, pay back the minimal amount of loans, and treat it like the job it is.

I met my husband in college. Someone I couldn’t meet in my area of South Philly, so that was a huge plus. I got a B.S. degree and a M.S. degree and met my husband who was the sole income for most of our married life (BSEE) while I stayed home and raised our four kids.

And our four kids (all girls) were raised to be the sole income for their future families if need be: Mechanical Engineer, Music Producer (with Math as her other major because no kid of mine was majoring in just Music), Nurse, and Accountant when she graduates next year.

I met my husband in college at Penn State. Best thing that ever happened to me. My oldest, the Mechanical Engineer, met her soon to be husband at my 2nd daughter’s wedding-he was a groomsman (and he lives around the corner and went to same high school but they weren’t in the same grade and didn’t know each other). My 2nd oldest met her husband one month after her college graduation at a bar that has now closed. He also grew up a few blocks from here and attended the same high school but different grade.

My third, recent college grad, now a nurse at Penn in Philly, was with her high school boyfriend for 5 years until the breakup in May and now is dating a Financial Analyst she met at a local country music bar 18 months ago and started dating a couple months ago. I think her and her older sister will marry these guys and that’s awesome.

My youngest is a junior in college, majoring in Accounting and still with her high school boyfriend. We’ll see if they stay together, lol.

I met my “high quality” spouse in college. None of my kids have.

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