13 Replies to “Libraries Can Replace Liberal Arts Colleges”

  1. …but, but, but who will provide the necessary context, nuance, & interpretation to make sure the students receive the proper indoctrination?

  2. .
    The guy has a point, but he’s smacking a gnat with a sledge hammer.
    There’s nothing wrong with familiarity with Plato and Shakespeare and Mozart: it has served many generations very well, providing, as the Bible has done, a common frame of reference. Not to mention the value of a knowledge of history.
    He also presumes that the sole purpose of education is to enhance prospects for making money.
    One hundred years ago, a man was considered educated if he possessed a broad knowledge of both the sciences and humanities. It wasn’t a matter of one or the other, and the achievement was not admired solely for its earning power.
    No doubt, contemporary American colleges and universities are bubbling over with politicized nonsense, but this guy wants to throw the baby out with the bath water.

  3. Thank you.
    One cannot argue that a humanities education is what is needed in the modern marketplace. I would argue that an appreciation of literature and history can make someone well-rounded. How many more Snookies and Rachel Jeantels must Western civilisation endure? The entire educational system needs an overhaul. Students must be taught skills that will serve them in life, not just in the workplace, as well as be encouraged to take subjects that will allow them to acquire jobs that are in demand. But don’t throw away everything.

  4. Take a look at school textbooks one, two, three, even four and five generations ago. You’ll discover that our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (in increasing magnitude the further you go back) were being taught concepts and ideas and disciplines in elementary and high school that most people don’t encounter until university or even grad school today. Poetry was memorized, literature was dense and classical in large part, and math was, on the whole much harder, and taught long form, without aids. They were also made to write in neat, cursive hand – not out of some prissy aesthetic or “neocolonial oppressor’s prerogative,” but because when handwriting was the word processing of its day, trade and culture and society worked better when we could all understand each other’s handwriting. The drop-off was fast – my sister, 12 years older than me, has infinitely better handwriting than I will ever have. My father, who dropped out of school when he was a mere boy to support his family, had better handwriting than I will ever hope to have. We’ve fallen so far from what was once the standard that I’m not sure what will ever get us back. We’ve fallen for the sham of credentialism because we can no longer be certain than anyone has a solid basis to function professionally, and so we’re forced to trust institutional awards.
    When I started working as a journalist, degrees in journalism were rare, and older editors still considered them a hindrance. That is no longer the case, and I’m not even fifty yet. But then, journalism no longer matters, so at least the damage done there won’t be serious.

  5. Yeah. Sure, Rick.
    My parents (boomers) were learning latin in high school. Today, they are teaching remedial English in university. A high school diploma used to get you a shot at a good job; today it isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
    The Captain is to kind and generous, a liberal arts college can be replaced with a day care…

  6. A liberal arts college can be replaced by a landfill since they both contain garbage.

  7. You know I was working on the nonsense AACU and the accreditors are foisting on colleges and universities in all degree areas. Would you anticipate essential learning outcomes that insist students adopt a belief there is a personal and collective responsibility to act on behalf of the common good?
    Then there is the Lumina Foundation’s Diploma Qualifications Profile and the Crucible Report that are to get degrees to all students by making desired dispositions and interpersonal relationships and imagining how the world might be designed anew. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/college-ready-as-a-goal-of-k-12-is-not-helpful-if-first-you-gut-the-historic-purpose-of-college/
    By the time you review the real desired outcomes and value and attitude and belief changes, it basically adds up to Uncle Karl’s 1848 wish list. All being foisted with tuition and tax dollars. So it is even more parasitical than appreciated.
    Except our countries and cultures and economies are the host at risk of being killed off.

  8. A sewage treatment plant would easily substitute for the illiberal arts colleges. Sorry scratch that sewage treatment plants do something useful.

  9. Captain, I think we know where you are coming from with this excellent rant and agree to some extent. However I have to also agree with those who think people need an all round education. The problem comes in when, as Robin suggest, these courses are being taught through the lens of Karl Marx which has infiltrated all the humanities disciplines across the western world’s campuses. Uncle Joe’s people have done an excellent job.

  10. Glenn Reynolds sees through the university bubble.
    “Student debt, which recently surpassed the trillion-dollar level in the US, is now a major burden on graduates, a burden that is often not offset by increased earnings from a college degree in say, race and gender issues, rather than engineering.
    According to a 2012 analysis of college graduates 25 and younger, 50% are either unemployed or in jobs that don’t require a college degree. Then there are the large numbers who don’t graduate at all, and the more than 40% of full-time students at four-year institutions who fail to graduate within six years, and the almost 75% of community-college students who fail to graduate within three years. Those students don’t have degrees, but they often still have debt.”
    http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/06/glenn-reynolds-on-the-immoratily-of-the-student-debt-explosion-administratiave-bloat-and-higher-education-bubble/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FmmMP+%28CARPE+DIEM%29#mbl

  11. There have always been students that took liberal arts courses because they are drawn to the field for the love of the subjects. Today it seems they are drawn to the field because it’s the path of least resistance to a degree, any degree. Useless is easy and leaves a lot more time to socialize and party. The fact that these degrees are worthless is probably the last thing they worry about. Tuition money is easy , leaving home to face the worlds challenges is exiting, they have been told they are now adults and the future is their oyster, and a boatload of other crap they can’t concern themselves with at this stage. The reality will set in when they have to move back in with their parents and and try to use that worthless degree in the real world. Eventually they learn that anything that’s too easy to get is worthless. We can give them that advice now but it would never sink in, because they are at the age where they think they know better than we do. Let them learn the hard way. The school of hard knocks is better than any liberal arts college.

  12. There is a significant difference between the cost of a liberal arts degree in Canada & the USA; so too is there a difference in the wages one can expect to earn from such a degree in fields such as teaching, social work, law, policing, etc. A 20,000 degree in English & history, turned into a career teaching in western Canada provides an excellent return on investment, for example. A four year criminology degree as a precursor to joining a police force is also a prudent financial choice. One must not conflate the differing realities divided by the 49th parallel.
    To employ the ‘Good Will Hunting’ argument: “you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a f*ckin education you coulda got for a dollah fifty in late chahges at the public library” is worthy of a smirk, but does not hold up to serious scrutiny. Reading great books is perhaps a third of what one does (ideally) to earn a B.A. Writing critical essays, developing an argument, paying particular attention to and explicating precise language, is of far greater importance than which books one reads (within reason), as is developing presentations on such material, and being able to justify one’s position before one’s peers. Neither of these skills can be obtained or honed at the public library.
    If I were to write on financial issues but consistently made basic mathematical errors, one would understandably discredit my opinions. I find myself in the same position regarding those with science/technical backgrounds who continually make rudimentary grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors, who lapse into cliche & logical fallacies, or who employ specious arguments. But somehow, whenever an irate English major points these errors out to the semi-literate numbers-boffin, they are brushed aside with a ‘that doesn’t matter’ or ‘you know what I mean.’ This is just as damaging to their arguments (though they fail to see it) as the inability of the left to understand basic financial realities when presenting their positions.
    The larger point that those who denigrate arts degrees miss entirely is the inability for us conservatives to change the faults in our society without greater numbers of us earning such degrees. We probably all agree there are serious problems with education, for example. Standing on the outside hollering about ‘progressive’ curriculum, activist school-boards and the like will not change matters; having conservatives in the classroom & making policy decisions will. A degree in accounting won’t help here; what we’ll need are some right-wingers with BAs.
    I think many of us would agree that a degree in ‘First Nations Studies’ is pretty Mickey-mouse. But people with those degrees are going to be the ones that work for Indian Affairs, are going to be the ones negotiating treaties, are going to be the ones drafting legislation & doing studies pertaining to reserves. Maybe it would be better for all of us if more conservatives were in on this process, yes? That means having conservatives with BAs in FNS.
    As conservatives, we’re far too willing to cede ground to the political left with a wave of the hand and announce, ‘that’s a useless degree.’ Look where it has got us. If we refuse to play, the other team isn’t going to head home, they’re just going to run up the score. Self-righteously declaring these fields of study ‘useless’ is counterproductive. If we want to win we’ve got to get in the game. Tantrums are for children.

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