• Welcome
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • About Me
  • Publications
    • Work in Progress
  • Blog
  • Provocations

BITE THE BULLET:  AMMUNITION V

4/2/2013

2 Comments

 
Ammunition IV  BITIING THE BULLETT

The foes of liberal education have a clear focused message – education is about jobs and liberal arts majors don’t get as many jobs or as high salaries as vocationally oriented  majors do.  They back that up with figures from hiring and salary surveys.  You know the  stuff, though it’s worth looking at it again to see what we are up against.  There is an overview in the last New and Noteworthy Newsletter: http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/1109165/c3328410a6/520044277/76b428fcde/

Earlier postings  on this blog  point out the weaknesses in this simple minded approach, and provide some anecdotal  and argumentative responses.  But it still looks to me as if the advocates of liberal education are going into the ring with both hands tied behind their backs. One hand is tied by reluctance to talk about “outcomes.”  Advocates say the  results of a liberal education are “subtle,”  “may not emerge for decades,” and must never be “utilitarian.”  Maybe, but that lets the opponents of liberal education define the goals of higher education. And you can bet they will do it in the narrowest possible way.  They won’t talk about using evidence, critical thinking, analytical reasoning, ability to write and speak effectively, clarity about values, or any of the other things a liberal education can help students develop.  These may be “by-products” of mastery of a field of knowledge, but they are not to be shrugged off, or passed over in silence.

The other hand is tied by reluctance to use quantitative evidence.  The evidence is now  available to show that students in  the traditional majors of the liberal arts and sciences  show  greater gains in critical thinking and analytical reasoning than those in more vocational fields.  Take a look at the tables in Richard Aum and  Josipa Roksa’s Academically Adrift, (http://www.amazon.com/Academically-Adrift-Limited-Learning-Campuses/dp/0226028569

)or a more recent study by Jeffry T. Steelde and Michael Bradley “Majors Matter.” It’s   at http://www.collegiatelearningassessment.org/files/Majorsmatter.pdf  Their conclusion “… students studying natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities and languages scored the highest, and students studying business and education scored the lowest.”

It’s time, I think, to take off the gloves, or bite the bullet,  whichever metaphor you prefer.  If we really care about students’ well-being, shouldn’t we be insisting that student advising and the allocation of financial resources focus on fields where students  are most likely to develop long-lasting,  life-enhancing capacities? 

2 Comments
Rob link
4/4/2013 06:52:19 am

I love the boxing imagery--very Demosthenic à la the First Philippic. As a grad student of Classical Studies myself, I am acutely aware of the need to defend ourselves. And since we're up against the type that use brass knuckles, the best defense in this case is a strong offense. I think that Demosthenes' Philippics provide a relevant analogy, and they ought to be read by every lover of the Humanities for that reason. We Liberal Arts people (and especially we Classicists) are like the Athenians. This is no time to be running around and waiting for someone to tell us whether Philip is dead or sick. So what, if Philip is dead? If we don't make an effort to defend ourselves with the data our opponents claim is against us, we'll have a lot more than just one Macedonian warlord to deal with!

One thing I'm particularly interested in, are the kinds of practical arguments to be made in favor of the study of Latin. Of all the subjects in Liberal Arts, it seems to me that Latin is the most resilient, and I think there's hope for it to grow rather than subsist. That's why I founded my blog: igotlatin.wordpress.com

Reply
Fred Brenk
4/8/2013 12:57:53 am

Dear Robert, Regarding the messages, if you look through Plutarch's Lives, I should think you would find something.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    RSS Feed

    Picture