05-29-2012, 03:44 PM
The issue is framed in terms of majors, but it's really about creating people to function in a Forbes-like universe.
The biggest threat to Peter Cohan and those like him is that the population will turn against endless consumerism in favor of something else. We don't know what this "something else" might look like; but it's a pretty safe bet it will come from one of the traditional liberal arts.
It's worth considering the opposite of liberal arts: mechanical arts. Liberal arts were considered essential to be a free person; mechanical arts were worthy of servants. Employers want bookkeepers, accountants, people with degrees in management and commerce, because they won't rock the boat--their livelihood is bound up with their intellectual capital, which in turn is bound to a particular set of values. Liberal arts are bound to a different set of values, one in which commerce is only one of many different approaches to the world.
The constant drumbeat by conservatives to privatize education is part of this same program: create a labor force that suits the needs of employers.
Some years ago I had occasion to be talking with a former ambassador; the head of a chemical company; a bank president; the director of a hedge fund; and a writer. Four of them had undergraduate degrees in classics, one a degree in German. Hardly typical, and I confess that all were enormously talented, but it may be indicative.
The biggest threat to Peter Cohan and those like him is that the population will turn against endless consumerism in favor of something else. We don't know what this "something else" might look like; but it's a pretty safe bet it will come from one of the traditional liberal arts.
It's worth considering the opposite of liberal arts: mechanical arts. Liberal arts were considered essential to be a free person; mechanical arts were worthy of servants. Employers want bookkeepers, accountants, people with degrees in management and commerce, because they won't rock the boat--their livelihood is bound up with their intellectual capital, which in turn is bound to a particular set of values. Liberal arts are bound to a different set of values, one in which commerce is only one of many different approaches to the world.
The constant drumbeat by conservatives to privatize education is part of this same program: create a labor force that suits the needs of employers.
Some years ago I had occasion to be talking with a former ambassador; the head of a chemical company; a bank president; the director of a hedge fund; and a writer. Four of them had undergraduate degrees in classics, one a degree in German. Hardly typical, and I confess that all were enormously talented, but it may be indicative.