Originally Posted by Wren
Originally Posted by Old Dad
Why wouldn't this work? Then we get people trained for things we need, not just are pretty.

There is a lot of merit to your thought patterns there, however, you're likely to get the argument that the arts are just as much "needed" as anything else. We're a society that has great difficulty understanding the difference between want and need.

As a scientist with a degree in history and who took a lot of other classes in the humanities (plus a reasonable knowledge of IT), I find this sort of thinking beyond depressing.

Knowing how to write some code or answer all the questions on a multiple choice test doesn't make someone educated --- it makes him trained. Sadly enough, I suspect that lack of serious exposure to the great ideas in the humanities feeds the idea that they're just "pretty" and without real value (in other words, the arrogance of ignorance). By "serious exposure", I mean talking about these ideas with other people and writing papers which are then critiqued and often rewritten, not simply reading a book or watching a set of videos or taking a gen ed course. Back in the dark ages before 1990 or so, American K-12 schools taught this stuff and the general population at least got some exposure to the Bronte sisters, John Locke, and so on. These days, we ask our kids to read an excerpt, choose the best answer, and move on.

When we disparage serious exploration of the humanities, we do our society a serious disservice because as a group, we start to ignore important ideas --- including important mistakes --- that have gone before. This ignorance damages a society's ability to reason and question the claims of others, and IMO, it's contributing to our problems today.

Civilizations are built on ideas as well as technology. IMO, too much focus on technology without a solid understanding of who we are and where we came from is a recipe for problems. Bell Labs used to send its leaders off to courses on philosophy/the humanities for precisely this reason.

But if you don't believe me (or Bell Labs), read this. It was written by someone who has been stamped with a Seal of Approval in Something that Matters (business).

Honestly, it's even more depressing to see this kind of shallow thinking on a forum like this one. :-P