I think the pendulum is swinging back from the jobs-is-all-that-matters talk. I tried o make the case for that in a recent draft essay “Classics Now”. So I was heartened that Nicholas Kristof decided to write about liberal education in his op-ed piece “Starving for Wisdom.” But it’s not all good news. The economists are still at it, even when they try to be helpful: ““A broad liberal arts education is a key pathway to success in the 21st-century economy,” says Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard. Katz says that the economic return to pure technical skills has flattened, and the highest return now goes to those who combine soft skills — excellence at communicating and working with people — with technical skills. “
Sound familiar? Katz is spouting more of the stale Return on Investment talk that has caused much damage in recent years.
Is there some Good news? Sure. Guess what? Scientists have figured out that literature helps develop empathy! “Science magazine published five studies indicating that research subjects who read literary fiction did better at assessing the feelings of a person in a photo than those who read nonfiction or popular fiction. Literature seems to offer lessons in human nature that help us decode the world around us and be better friends.”
I’m sorry if I sound contemptuous. Kristof, like so many of us, is working his way through some tough issue. You have to respect him for that. What’s more Calypso in the Odyssey, may Zeus bless her, come to his aid, and eventually, he gets it, or at least some of it: “wherever our careers lie, much of our happiness depends upon our interactions with those around us, and there’s some evidence that literature nurtures a richer emotional intelligence. “
So maybe the pendulum is swinging a bit. It better, the pit is awfully deep.
Sound familiar? Katz is spouting more of the stale Return on Investment talk that has caused much damage in recent years.
Is there some Good news? Sure. Guess what? Scientists have figured out that literature helps develop empathy! “Science magazine published five studies indicating that research subjects who read literary fiction did better at assessing the feelings of a person in a photo than those who read nonfiction or popular fiction. Literature seems to offer lessons in human nature that help us decode the world around us and be better friends.”
I’m sorry if I sound contemptuous. Kristof, like so many of us, is working his way through some tough issue. You have to respect him for that. What’s more Calypso in the Odyssey, may Zeus bless her, come to his aid, and eventually, he gets it, or at least some of it: “wherever our careers lie, much of our happiness depends upon our interactions with those around us, and there’s some evidence that literature nurtures a richer emotional intelligence. “
So maybe the pendulum is swinging a bit. It better, the pit is awfully deep.
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