h/t Instapundit
The Associated Press recently detailed the desperation of our public universities as they strive to protect the humanities from budget-cutting state governors and legislatures. The story focuses on comments made last month by Florida governor Rick Scott. Citing the miserable economy, Scott argued that precious state tax dollars should go to support science and tech studies, not “educate more people who can’t get jobs in anthropology.”
This has sent shock waves through faculty lounges across the country. The story quotes University of Connecticut president Susan Herbst, who worries that an overemphasis on job training will rob students of what is truly higher in higher education. Not only do the humanities teach “critical thinking,” says Herbst, they also “teach us how we’re supposed to live.”
As someone with a Ph.D. in the humanities myself, IÂ’d share HerbstÂ’s sadness if I thought there was much left of the genuine humanities still being taught that needed saving. Instead, Herbst is right for the wrong reason: The humanities are indeed in mortal peril, if not dead already But neither our governors nor our state legislators are the assassins. Our humanities professors are.
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