Colleges removing useless majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the humanities. I have 4 degrees, and they were all completely free (1 degree is from overseas and 2 are Ivy League). I make a comfortable living in my field at a job I love that really gives me the chance to help students. I never took a STEM course after high school and don't care if my kids do either if that's not their bliss; conversely, if they want that pathway, I will do everything possible to support them.

There's nothing useless about what I do or about the students who want to study it. It's just not CS or STEM. But I have a hard time believing my field shouldn't have the right to exist. If people don't want to study it, they don't have to. But humanities are actually pretty cheap to maintain at the University level in terms of costs. The main reason to discontinue programs is so that salaried positions can be eliminated, not because the programs themselves are considered to be intellectually useless.

Getting rid of the humanities is kind of like saying anyone who doesn't have the height shouldn't play basketball after age 16 because it's just a waste of energy since they can't turn pro. But there are lots of good things that can come from pursuing a sport on the nonprofessional level. The humanities are the same way: they train your mind in certain habits and skills that STEM presentations just don't do. Maybe you don't feel you or your student want or need those things. That's OK with me, but there are still plenty of folks who do want and need them. And as long as that's the case, I'm lucky to be part of it.

How many faculty slots should a department struggling to attract majors be allotted when other departments have to turn away prospective majors due to overwhelming demand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is becoming a modern-day vocational school.

It can't continue to remain like a country club after charging $200K $300K

Well I wouldn't recommend someone get an English Lit major and pay $300k+ unless the money is easy to pay. There are more affordable ways to get a degree.
But if you like English, major in it, develop critical thinking/analyzing and writing skills. And genuinely learn

A smart person can go far with an English degree

A smart person can develop critical thinking/analyzing and writing skills on the side with gen ed requirements.
A smart person would major in real serious stuff.

You’re an idiot troll. Get a hobby.

[Anonymous]

OP, you should be arguing for the creation of vocational colleges, which I heartily support, rather than the shutting down of the humanities. It's quite short-sighted to devalue the humanities.
Did you read stories and picture books to your children?
Do you read anything besides technical manuals?
Appreciate art?
Listen to music?
Dance?
Learn about history?
Travel for pleasure?
Speak a foreign language?
Watch shows or movies?
Use well-designed product or live in a beautiful building?
Wear clothes that you find pleasing?
Enjoy strolling through gardens and parks?
Talk with your friends, families, and neighbors about anything besides STEM topics?
Listen to news on the radio?
Read about news in the papers?
Have any interest in political movements?
Care about legal rights, the constitution, justice?
Partake in any cultural or religious events or rituals (baptisms, graduations, weddings, funerals, etc.)?
Maybe you just needed more of a humanities education to be grateful for how much of the humanities are a part of a beautiful life?
-A prof in the humanities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ChatGpt replaces the need for english majors, except for them to work on the chatgpt engine

Same could be said about coders. I’m in tech and one of our engineers was discussing on slack that he uses ChatGPT to write large amounts of code. Same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should be arguing for the creation of vocational colleges, which I heartily support, rather than the shutting down of the humanities. It's quite short-sighted to devalue the humanities.
Did you read stories and picture books to your children?
Do you read anything besides technical manuals?
Appreciate art?
Listen to music?
Dance?
Learn about history?
Travel for pleasure?
Speak a foreign language?
Watch shows or movies?
Use well-designed product or live in a beautiful building?
Wear clothes that you find pleasing?
Enjoy strolling through gardens and parks?
Talk with your friends, families, and neighbors about anything besides STEM topics?
Listen to news on the radio?
Read about news in the papers?
Have any interest in political movements?
Care about legal rights, the constitution, justice?
Partake in any cultural or religious events or rituals (baptisms, graduations, weddings, funerals, etc.)?
Maybe you just needed more of a humanities education to be grateful for how much of the humanities are a part of a beautiful life?
-A prof in the humanities

You don't need to pay shit ton of money to college for all these

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an English major. Admittedly, I chose it because I didn't really have a passion at the time. It taught me to read, write, communicate, and analyze, and I am a better practitioner of what I do now because of it. 90% of my professional accolades and praise come from my ability to communicate, which is much better than my colleagues who are only trained in our field.

The fact that the majority of institutions making these cuts are doing so in a climate of financial hardship on the edge of an enrollment cliff (which is a totally different financial crisis) doesn't convince me they are making the cuts for the right reasons.

You majored in English because you didn't know what else to do. But, here's something interesting.. you don't need to be an English major to communicate well. Part of it is personality. Some people just communicate better than others.

Also lots of majors teach critical thinking, I mean.. you can't major in STEM without having good critical thinking skills.

The writing part I might agree with you on, but judging by the writing that I'm seeing at work from millennials, full of shortcuts like TLDR, LGTM, I don't think writing full sentences is important for the younger generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not encouraging my kids to choose a major in the humanities but I don’t want to live in a world where no one does.

If you attended college but didn’t study any of the “impractical” subjects, I don’t consider you college educated.

+1. That is the whole point of college.

Every major makes you take "impractical" classes, they are called core classes.

Some schools do not have core classes or have very few. My daughter goes to Smith and there is only one required class, a writing class. Their engineering majors have so many requirements that I’m not sure (but don’t know) they have time for much outside of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an English major. Now I’m a lawyer and I write a lot. I don’t think my major was useless but I guess wtf do I know?

Maybe law can be an undergrad degree, eliminating the need to go into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should be arguing for the creation of vocational colleges, which I heartily support, rather than the shutting down of the humanities. It's quite short-sighted to devalue the humanities.
Did you read stories and picture books to your children?
Do you read anything besides technical manuals?
Appreciate art?
Listen to music?
Dance?
Learn about history?
Travel for pleasure?
Speak a foreign language?
Watch shows or movies?
Use well-designed product or live in a beautiful building?
Wear clothes that you find pleasing?
Enjoy strolling through gardens and parks?
Talk with your friends, families, and neighbors about anything besides STEM topics?
Listen to news on the radio?
Read about news in the papers?
Have any interest in political movements?
Care about legal rights, the constitution, justice?
Partake in any cultural or religious events or rituals (baptisms, graduations, weddings, funerals, etc.)?
Maybe you just needed more of a humanities education to be grateful for how much of the humanities are a part of a beautiful life?
-A prof in the humanities

You don't need to pay shit ton of money to college for all these

Yep, imagine the New York Times written by a bunch of high school grads! A Supreme Court full of justices that never studied history, even better!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the humanities. I have 4 degrees, and they were all completely free (1 degree is from overseas and 2 are Ivy League). I make a comfortable living in my field at a job I love that really gives me the chance to help students. I never took a STEM course after high school and don't care if my kids do either if that's not their bliss; conversely, if they want that pathway, I will do everything possible to support them.

There's nothing useless about what I do or about the students who want to study it. It's just not CS or STEM. But I have a hard time believing my field shouldn't have the right to exist. If people don't want to study it, they don't have to. But humanities are actually pretty cheap to maintain at the University level in terms of costs. The main reason to discontinue programs is so that salaried positions can be eliminated, not because the programs themselves are considered to be intellectually useless.

Getting rid of the humanities is kind of like saying anyone who doesn't have the height shouldn't play basketball after age 16 because it's just a waste of energy since they can't turn pro. But there are lots of good things that can come from pursuing a sport on the nonprofessional level. The humanities are the same way: they train your mind in certain habits and skills that STEM presentations just don't do. Maybe you don't feel you or your student want or need those things. That's OK with me, but there are still plenty of folks who do want and need them. And as long as that's the case, I'm lucky to be part of it.

? You didn't take any higher level math or science class in college? How is that possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should be arguing for the creation of vocational colleges, which I heartily support, rather than the shutting down of the humanities. It's quite short-sighted to devalue the humanities.
Did you read stories and picture books to your children?
Do you read anything besides technical manuals?
Appreciate art?
Listen to music?
Dance?
Learn about history?
Travel for pleasure?
Speak a foreign language?
Watch shows or movies?
Use well-designed product or live in a beautiful building?
Wear clothes that you find pleasing?
Enjoy strolling through gardens and parks?
Talk with your friends, families, and neighbors about anything besides STEM topics?
Listen to news on the radio?
Read about news in the papers?
Have any interest in political movements?
Care about legal rights, the constitution, justice?
Partake in any cultural or religious events or rituals (baptisms, graduations, weddings, funerals, etc.)?
Maybe you just needed more of a humanities education to be grateful for how much of the humanities are a part of a beautiful life?
-A prof in the humanities

You don't need to pay shit ton of money to college for all these

Yep, imagine the New York Times written by a bunch of high school grads! A Supreme Court full of justices that never studied history, even better!

Looking at recent decisions, I would prefer justices who took a few more science classes even if it came at the expense of history classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the humanities. I have 4 degrees, and they were all completely free (1 degree is from overseas and 2 are Ivy League). I make a comfortable living in my field at a job I love that really gives me the chance to help students. I never took a STEM course after high school and don't care if my kids do either if that's not their bliss; conversely, if they want that pathway, I will do everything possible to support them.

There's nothing useless about what I do or about the students who want to study it. It's just not CS or STEM. But I have a hard time believing my field shouldn't have the right to exist. If people don't want to study it, they don't have to. But humanities are actually pretty cheap to maintain at the University level in terms of costs. The main reason to discontinue programs is so that salaried positions can be eliminated, not because the programs themselves are considered to be intellectually useless.

Getting rid of the humanities is kind of like saying anyone who doesn't have the height shouldn't play basketball after age 16 because it's just a waste of energy since they can't turn pro. But there are lots of good things that can come from pursuing a sport on the nonprofessional level. The humanities are the same way: they train your mind in certain habits and skills that STEM presentations just don't do. Maybe you don't feel you or your student want or need those things. That's OK with me, but there are still plenty of folks who do want and need them. And as long as that's the case, I'm lucky to be part of it.

? You didn't take any higher level math or science class in college? How is that possible.

You go to a school that lets you use AP scores to satisfy core requirements. I took math in college because I loved math and I picked up science classes because I liked science, but I could have graduated without taking any thanks to AP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College is becoming a modern-day vocational school.

As it now needs to be with the obscene price of tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the humanities. I have 4 degrees, and they were all completely free (1 degree is from overseas and 2 are Ivy League). I make a comfortable living in my field at a job I love that really gives me the chance to help students. I never took a STEM course after high school and don't care if my kids do either if that's not their bliss; conversely, if they want that pathway, I will do everything possible to support them.

There's nothing useless about what I do or about the students who want to study it. It's just not CS or STEM. But I have a hard time believing my field shouldn't have the right to exist. If people don't want to study it, they don't have to. But humanities are actually pretty cheap to maintain at the University level in terms of costs. The main reason to discontinue programs is so that salaried positions can be eliminated, not because the programs themselves are considered to be intellectually useless.

Getting rid of the humanities is kind of like saying anyone who doesn't have the height shouldn't play basketball after age 16 because it's just a waste of energy since they can't turn pro. But there are lots of good things that can come from pursuing a sport on the nonprofessional level. The humanities are the same way: they train your mind in certain habits and skills that STEM presentations just don't do. Maybe you don't feel you or your student want or need those things. That's OK with me, but there are still plenty of folks who do want and need them. And as long as that's the case, I'm lucky to be part of it.

How many faculty slots should a department struggling to attract majors be allotted when other departments have to turn away prospective majors due to overwhelming demand?

Sure. Harvard should ditch their divinity school faculty. Because who needs any of that useless religion stuff anyways, right?

SMH

[Anonymous]

I think the main issue that this post highlights is that higher education should be more affordable, not that we need to eliminate liberal arts and humanities from college studies. There is societal value in having an educated populace but individuals should not have to go into personal debt for it.