Originally Posted by Wren
They do not have a bunch of people going to a liberal arts college and then say, "what kind of job is out there waiting for me?"

Yes, students and graduates of places like Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and Williams are pretty much parasitic lampreys feeding off the hard-working graduates of Colleges That Matter.

Education is supposed to be about exposing a student to important ideas and getting him to really think about the world around him. Science and engineering have a very important place in education, but when we elevate these subjects to being the only areas that "matter," we become narrow and unimaginative as a society. And we elevate these sorry characteristics the status of virtues.

IMO, the foundation underlying this type of thinking is the same one that leads schools to disparage gifted kids. Which is to say, "Your kid should just be like all the other ones and do what we've decided is best." In this way, they don't want kids who remind them of things they don't like or see as being unimportant. I guess they aren't alone.

Personally, and again, it's very disheartening to see the ideal of a well-rounded, educated mind being replaced with a crass approach that devalues the arts and humanities. It just advances us along our national road to nowhere.

frown