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The Liberal Arts Are Dead; Long Live STEM
The Federalist ^ | 6/2/15 | Thielman

Posted on 06/02/2015 10:27:42 AM PDT by pabianice

In recent months, Christopher Scalia in the Wall Street Journal and Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post have defended studying the liberal arts in college, primarily to confront advocates of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Zakaria’s article previewed his new book, “In Defense of a Liberal Education.”

From my perspective as a former engineer, two caveats arise regarding their pleas: first, “liberal” education that involves “critical thinking” disappeared decades ago, to be replaced by hyper-sensitive grievance mongering; second, the quantitative reasoning STEM occupations develops also facilitates the understanding of trade-offs people need to make rational decisions among myriad conflicting policy options. Liberals Have Killed the Liberal Arts

Political correctness has corroded the humanities and social studies, as recently noted by David Patten in The Federalist and last year by Harvey Silverglate in the Wall Street Journal. After rejecting their objective anchors in the academic canon of classical texts, these fields succumbed to passionate group thinking and sybaritic self-absorption. The arts have become a free-for-all, as witnessed by the plethora of departments categorized by identity politics and demands for “trigger warnings” for traumatized souls. (The offending list should include “eigenvectors” and “thermodynamics”—terms that strike engineering sophomores with utmost dread.)

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: college; education; engineeering; liberalarts; math; science; stem; technology; whiteprivilege
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1 posted on 06/02/2015 10:27:42 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: pabianice

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. STEM is becoming politicized too.


2 posted on 06/02/2015 10:29:08 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: pabianice

STEM is becoming STEAM.
A = Arts.
Which pretty much covers everything and renders the acronym moot.


3 posted on 06/02/2015 10:34:37 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Hillary:polarizing/calculating/disingenuous/insincere/ambitious/inevitable/entitled/overconfident/se)
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To: ctdonath2

Yes and then also I’ve seen “Social Sciences” bundled into the “S” of STEM.


4 posted on 06/02/2015 10:37:55 AM PDT by tellw
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To: pabianice
"Feminist math concentrates not so much on an absolute answer to math problems, but rather, an answer while allows the woman to feel good about herself."
5 posted on 06/02/2015 10:42:01 AM PDT by pabianice (LINE)
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To: pabianice
It used to be that Liberal Arts prepared students to be able to read challenging material with comprehension, to write lucidly and logically (correct spelling and grammar was a condition of entry to college, not something to be taught there in remedial classes), and to be able to persuasively argue your opinions with data and logic.

All we have left now is the institutionalized grievance industry.

6 posted on 06/02/2015 10:43:05 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: PapaBear3625

“It used to be that Liberal Arts prepared students to be able to read challenging material with comprehension, to write lucidly and logically..., and to be able to persuasively argue your opinions with data and logic.”

Yes! In short, to be able to think and seek Truth. Today, you can’t. As Bloom described and predicted, it’s the Closing of the American Mind.


7 posted on 06/02/2015 10:51:07 AM PDT by ReaganGeneration2
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To: pabianice
I remember seeing a textbook in the 1970s titled “Black Logic” and thinking “WTF?”
8 posted on 06/02/2015 10:54:57 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: pabianice

I’ve got my own opinions on the whole STEM push. It’s great if the student is bent toward the technical field, but the untoward push for girls in STEM is kind of dumb.

I used to coach a high school robotics team. The girls on the team seemed to gravitate away from the mechanical toward the promotion and media end of the team. Realistically, it’s just as if not more important to the teams success.

To the authors point about the difference between STEM and liberal arts, my son is an engineering major. At most schools, students dread Calculus. At his school the dreaded class is an Arts class. They have to go to some galleries and an opera. These kids who live in black and white have a hard time describing the “feelings” of an artist who lives in the gray middle. It’s actually kind of funny.


9 posted on 06/02/2015 11:00:03 AM PDT by cyclotic ( Check out traillifeusa.com. America's premier boys outdoor organization)
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To: pabianice; All
"Zakaria’s article previewed his new book,
“In Defense of a Liberal Education.” "




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10 posted on 06/02/2015 11:00:20 AM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: pabianice

All the Liberal Arts Majors took Geology or Biology as their Science elective when I was in College.
I took Geology as I was considering Petroleum Engineering and wanted to see if I liked it.

The Rocks were NOT the dumbest items in the class.


11 posted on 06/02/2015 11:05:19 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: pabianice

If colleges don’t collect $200,000 from students to get a Women’s Studies degree WHO will be serving my coffee?

Coffee tastes ever so sweet when sprinkled with the tears of an unemployable social justice warrior with a massive amount of debt and a master’s degree.


12 posted on 06/02/2015 11:07:21 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: pabianice
Freshman engineering students, for example, attend an essential core set of courses that includes calculus, physics, and chemistry. Should we assume that English majors still peruse Shakespeare and Chaucer? Probably not. Do philosophy majors read Aristotle, David Hume, or Friedrich Nietzsche any more? Do sociologists study Plato, Voltaire, or James Madison?

What is actually being argued here is not any innate superiority of the engineering/science curricula, but the dilution and loss of rigor within the humanities curricula. That doesn't actually touch on which is "more important to society".

That dilution is pretty easy to restore, but not in the face of furious resistance on the part of politically inspired culture warriors who mistake rigor and academic discipline for social oppression. These are folks who not only couldn't pass freshman calculus, they're folks who resent being asked to. They don't do very well with Aristotle and Tolstoy, either.

In short, the liberal arts aren't dead, they're as vibrant and vital as ever. The people studying them may be worthy of the topic or not. The difference is that when that happens in engineering, they flunk.

13 posted on 06/02/2015 11:13:17 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: pabianice

Well you’ve gotta have someone to tax to provide gubbermint jobs for all of those Liberal Arts grads, dontcha now...


14 posted on 06/02/2015 11:18:24 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: pabianice

There will once again be a place for the liberal arts when they become less “liberal” and more “arts.”


15 posted on 06/02/2015 11:19:55 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: pabianice

I thought you were making a joke.


16 posted on 06/02/2015 11:26:31 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: pabianice

Ignores schools like hillsdale, christendom, etc...


17 posted on 06/02/2015 11:27:38 AM PDT by WriteOn (Truth)
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To: pabianice
Just because my son an some of his friends, all future Enineers, made Steel RED letters to replce the ones LATE one night on College of LIBERAL Arts sign to read College of LIBERAL Arts .
18 posted on 06/02/2015 11:27:43 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: ctdonath2

Kind of like undefining the word “marriage”, eh?


19 posted on 06/02/2015 11:28:58 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: pabianice

That must be the math that actuaries for public employee pensions majored in.


20 posted on 06/02/2015 11:29:31 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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