Posted on 12/16/2010 4:52:16 AM PST by Kaslin
Most fast food employees can barely speak English much less talk about the Humanities.
The Liberal Arts were never intended to be vocational training.
Folks who get a real Liberal Arts degree with all it entails are ready to tackle most anything. They have learned to think and to reflect and have the context and the data to think productively. They can go from a real Liberal Arts school to any technical school or business school for an advanced degree and will be way ahead of their State U classmates. That said, there are very few Liberal Arts degrees that are worth the time to keypunch them in. A school that promotes Great Books curricula is a better shot than most but even with that, one must familiarize oneself with what the school actually offers before one commits.
Many of you missed my point with my original post. I have a liberal arts degree. I also teach high school Latin.
I forgot the /sarc tag.:)
Hard science and math degrees only mean you can manipulate numbers.
ONLY manipulating numbers doesn't imply problem solving. There isn't a good engineering school in the country that you can get through by "ONLY" manipulating numbers. Ditto science.
...to solve problems.
To elaborate: Problem solving involves a LOT more than manipulating the numbers. It involves identifying the real problem to be solved - often quite different from what the person assigning the matter thinks it is - determining what factors are important, quantifying them, then yes manipulating the numbers, then implementing a solution in line with those numbers.
Would that our politicians took such an approach!
I’m an engineer. I understand your point.
I’m embarrassed that one little adverb got in the way of my point.
Liberal Arts should be a part of the overall education, not the whole.
The coffee server will likely spend many, many years paying down that debt....
True. I do not know if she will ever be able to.
The liberal arts curriculum was originally for the education of the children of the upper class. They didn't need to work, they needed to be able to conduct interesting conversation at parties. The purpose of a classic liberal arts is to prepare one for a life spent in talking to people and persuading them toward your point of view.
Point taken.
I used to be an engineer. I’m now in an entirely different field involving business, negotiations, and writing.
I often see engineers denigrate liberal arts (as in real classical liberal arts, not leftist brainwashing liberal arts that deserve denigration IMHO). Things like “those fluff subjects have no use in the real world,” etc. The stories of how they blew off their GEC (General Education Requirement) classes and still blew the curve inevitably follow. Of course, many of these engineers couldn’t write about anything but their areas of expertise even if their lives depended on it. Also, even their writing in their areas of expertise often is barely comprehensible. So I do agree with your original point to some extent.
I likewise often see non-engineers denigrate engineers. Things like “all those engineers do is play with their toys and crunch numbers,” etc. Stories about how all engineers are one dimensional nerds inevitably follow. This from people who often cannot do anything beyond basic math or understand basic problem solving. Of course, just about everyting in the modern world wouldn’t exist without the input of engineers, but they don’t realize that. The reality is that without engineers, our nation is done. Over. Kaput. We’ll fall behind in all areas of tech, icluding but not limited to military tech and infrastructure. This is a real problem that we are really facing: Far too few college students have the skills to get through engineering, and even fewer can teach themselves engineering as you apparently have.
We need both types of people, and more people who understand BOTH sides of the equation. Unfortunately, engineering is often more left-brained while liberal arts is often more right-brained. Few people can be both, so getting people to understand the value of both is probably the best we can do for now.
That’s why I reacted the way I did: Took your first comment to be an example of denigrating engineers. Apparently that’s not what you meant, so as I said, point taken.
Beautifully stated, piytar. I just wanted to make sure you knew that I was one of those rarities. I couldn’t have said what you said any better. I don’t denigrate engineers, I am one, but as an English grad student, I hear stories all the time about engineers who only know their work and can’t relate it to any other concepts or subsets of engineering or other business modalities. Education should be far more comprehensive than what is being taught in the ivory towers of the modern leftist university.
All the fault of Appius Claudius and the Decemvirs. Once the plebeians could read the Twelve Tables, it was downhill all the way. Unless he means the fifth century A.D.
And revel in the accomplishments of a creative genius who presents a urine soaked crucifix as art. Bah Humbug! ^3
I enjoyed reading your post 4.
At one time it was high school graduates who never learned the pleasure of reading books. Today many of the college graduates have joined that group. Sad.
Iron Jack, there are a lot of Freepers on these college major threads that believe that if you don't have an engineering degree you have wasted your time in college. Their minds are firmly sealed to any arguments to the contrary. I personally don't like them, but we must be polite.
There are arguments both ways. Some of the ancillary courses required at universities today are either a complete waste of time or little more than leftist indoctrination. I don’t blame anyone for resenting such requirements.
However, the notion that universities should be trade schools is also abhorrent. If that’s the educational experience you’re after, there are vocational-technical schools that will give you what you want. But if you want a university degree, be prepared to learn outside your immediate sphere, across the landscape of human knowledge.
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