Posted on 10/30/2002 8:03:45 PM PST by cornelis
Good show resurrecting this from seven years ago!
The more things change ... one is led to wonder if those folks who were undergrad students when this thread began have changed their opinions any since then?
Sad things have so degenerated. I earned a BA in Anthropology in the late 60s. Along the way, I had 20 credits in biology and chemistry. The sociology and anthro were pure — no PC bull$hit like today’s kids get. Alas, my school (UMass) went from a great state university to the toilet of PC insanity it is today.
My own opinion is that all college graduates should be taught the basics of Western history and literature and good language skills. There is a basic canon of information that at one time everyone needed to learn to be considered educated. And, from my own experience, it makes life much more interesting and pleasureable.
That said, I think much of the pushback on this thread stems from the fact that lefty universities and professors have hijacked the humanities in many institutions and no longer teach the subject, but have made the departments bastions of political correctness if not outright socialist indoctrination.
I went to a Prep School that offered a Classical course and nothing else. When I first tried to become an Engineeer they Noticed a certain Lack of Mathematics in my background.
So I enlisted in the Army in 1965, great growing up experience, two years of remedial Math, and I are one, since retired after doing little Engineering and a lot of Army NCOing as a Manager. A love of the Classics is a good thing but but being able to eat well is better.
An engineer who can read, write, and speak effectively is worth more than two brilliant engineers who can only design circuits or write code.
I’d say that your Prep School did a bad job of Prepping you ... I’m all in favour of a well-rounded education, but that would include the maths as well as the classics.
Happened to a bunch of us, it wasn’t about well rounded, Language, the Arts, Logic, math was there but not stressed.
:’)
“I know a guy who didn’t get his engineering degree for nearly two decades because he couldn’t pass some silly writing course.”
Couldn’t pass a silly writing course...for...two...
decades?
What’s wrong with this picture?
In two DECADES I think I could figure out how to pass a silly writing course, but that’s just me.
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