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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| The HumanitiesÂ’ Real Enemies |
| 2011-12-19 |
| h/t Instapundit The Associated Press recently detailed the desperation of our public universities as they strive to protect the humanities from budget-cutting state governors and legislatures. The story focuses on comments made last month by Florida governor Rick Scott. Citing the miserable economy, Scott argued that precious state tax dollars should go to support science and tech studies, not “educate more people who can’t get jobs in anthropology.” This has sent shock waves through faculty lounges across the country. The story quotes University of Connecticut president Susan Herbst, who worries that an overemphasis on job training will rob students of what is truly higher in higher education. Not only do the humanities teach “critical thinking,” says Herbst, they also “teach us how we’re supposed to live.” As someone with a Ph.D. in the humanities myself, I’d share Herbst’s sadness if I thought there was much left of the genuine humanities still being taught that needed saving. Instead, Herbst is right for the wrong reason: The humanities are indeed in mortal peril, if not dead already But neither our governors nor our state legislators are the assassins. Our humanities professors are. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #4 hiring a new Assistant engineer. One candidate has a BSCE, MSCE from Stanford and is a licensed engineer. He's not even my first choice. Buyer's market |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-12-19 19:45 |
| #3 engineers graduating with a bachelors or masters degree are having difficulty finding jobs Nephew graduated 3 1/2 years ago with engineering degree. Just unemployed again, after his third job of a year or less ended. He's worked for Worley & Parsons (twice), and Bechtel, and has burned no bridges behind him, so he'll catch another job in a few months, I expect. The Bechtel job was a government boondoggle designed to spend money and produce nothing, as far as I can tell. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2011-12-19 19:30 |
| #2 Scott argued that precious state tax dollars should go to support science and tech studies, not "educate more people who can't get jobs in anthropology." The economy is so bad that many engineers graduating with a bachelors or masters degree are having difficulty finding jobs. Moreover, there are many experienced engineers who are unemployed and looking for work. I can see where education in the soft sciences and the more recent PC disciplines (social and political sciences, women's studies, black studies, gay and gender-related studies) are going to get starved for money. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-12-19 17:23 |
| #1 Completely on target. They no longer teach how to think, nor do they encourage truly free inquiry - they only rigidly enforce what to think, and only allow question of those they perceive to be enemies, and never allow those "allies" in authority to be questioned. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2011-12-19 15:38 |