re: Who Killed the Liberal Arts

quote:

---

I agree. The ability to think critically is severely lacking in society today, and that is in large part to the devaluation of the liberal arts from kindergarten on up.

---

Exactly.

Grammar - Logic - Rhetoric. Fixing education in this country is so simple.

Human resources killed the liberal arts, and that's the truth.

The liberal arts wounded themselves, but the death blow came from without.

Also, no one's graduating high school without having read at least some Shakespeare. We read Romeo and Juliet 3 times, and read Julius Caesar as well.

History is Philosophy teaching by example.

--Thucydides

Just sayin'

quote:

---

The purpose of going to college isn't to get a job. It's to become educated. Employers want educated people. Do you really want to live in a country where no one studies literature, philosophy, theology, art history, languages? That's ridiculous.

---

Exactly. I had a friend in high school whose Dad was the CEO of a fairly large and successful company.

He said that, when it came to hiring new employees, he generally preferred a liberal arts major to a business major.

He summed it up something like this:

"There is nothing that we ask our entry or mid-level employees to do that we can't teach them ourselves in a few months. But I can't teach an employee to be a better critical thinker. They have to bring that to the table, because we can't do it for them."

quote:

---

He welded enough to help me through college.

---

quote:

---

I will expect my kid to learn a vocation (albeit a professional vocation) in college. Otherwise, they can pay for it themselves.

---

Interesting.

The problem is:
1. 99% of most business don't think like that, or more importantly, their HR departments don't. They like to use automated online systems to screen resumes by setting up criteria to avoid being sifted out. The easiest way to do so is to sort by major and gpa. They don't care that they were a philosophy major or an engineering major or an english major. They work for a business, so that resume better say "business" or it's not making it through to a real person. The next filter is years of experience, but that's besides the point.

2. 99% of liberal arts colleges no longer teach critical thinking, but routine memorization. They do not teach students how to think, rather they teach what to think and a format for stating said predetermined thought.

Liberal Arts are no longer valued because the degrees produce little value for their degree holders in the corporate jobs market. They produce little value for corporate recruiters because they no longer teach critical thinking, something corporations assume all applicants can do.

It's a vicious cycle.

What's interesting is that a person with a liberal arts degree from an Ivy League school is more likely to end up rich and wealthy than a person with an engineering or STEM degree from LSU. Life isn't fair and an English major and or History major from Yale is more likely to end up on Wall Street than a finance major from LSU.

Someone with any degree from an ivy league school is more likely to wind up rich than any degree elsewhere, just about. Ivy League degrees, especially from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, come with such prestige and connections that they're almost a can't miss. That's why they cost so much and have such high rejection rates.