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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,840
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Joined: Jun 2008
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This thread has discussed the relative merits of humanities and more career-oriented majors. Many universities may not be good places to study literature and history, because many of the professors don't respect the subjects they are supposed to be teaching. Yes, quite true. The best history lecturer I know taught at a small state school. A friend would record his lectures for studying and one day I heard him. She let me make copies of the tapes for my own pleasure. He only had a master's degree and was just an adjunct. But he was hugely popular for his speaking ability and ability to get inside the minds of people.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,298 Likes: 1
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Joined: Sep 2007
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This thread has discussed the relative merits of humanities and more career-oriented majors. Many universities may not be good places to study literature and history, because many of the professors don't respect the subjects they are supposed to be teaching. They have left a vacuum that is being filled, at much less expense, by the Teaching Company (now know as Great Courses), as discussed in a recent essay: Very sad. Courses from The Teaching Company are wonderful in certain ways, but they don't teach people how to read and write. For me, one of the major benefits of a degree in the humanities was that it taught me how to read and how to write --- so I don't see them as replacements for a course at a university. A video can't replace live discussions and essays and the ideas they generate. My professors expected all of us to read between the lines of a text, pick out the theme sentence of a thousand-page novel, figure out what motivated a character, and understand about different perspectives on historical people and events. Then we had to write this stuff down, essay after essay. After my freshman year, I wrote more than a hundred pages every semester. These skills carried through later when I became a scientist. What's sadder still is that the people who are supposed to be upholding this practice with their own students seem to have taken a pass.
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1 |
I believe that college is a certification process. That is what I was brought up to believe. Learning is forever. Just because I took engineering doesn't mean that I cannot spend my life enjoying history, literature. I read Proust from beginning to end, not many engineers can say that I bet. Val mentioned writing. I was not a good writer in college. My lab reports were minimal. But I had to take a writing course since I had to write for my work and taking one course taught me the basics. I was the only A the prof ever gave, he said at the time. You can learn to write, just like you can learn to play the piano. But paying the mortgage, you need a skill set to get a job.
Everyone in my neighborhood bascially went to college to get a job, and were specific about it. Maybe I am too old on this forum.
Ren
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1 |
I believe that college is a certification process. That is what I was brought up to believe. Learning is forever. Just because I took engineering doesn't mean that I cannot spend my life enjoying history, literature. I read Proust from beginning to end, not many engineers can say that I bet. Val mentioned writing. I was not a good writer in college. My lab reports were minimal. But I had to take a writing course since I had to write for my work and taking one course taught me the basics. I was the only A the prof ever gave, he said at the time. You can learn to write, just like you can learn to play the piano. But paying the mortgage, you need a skill set to get a job.
Everyone in my neighborhood bascially went to college to get a job, and were specific about it. Maybe I am too old on this forum.
Ren
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1 |
I believe that college is a certification process. That is what I was brought up to believe. Learning is forever. Just because I took engineering doesn't mean that I cannot spend my life enjoying history, literature. I read Proust from beginning to end, not many engineers can say that I bet. Val mentioned writing. I was not a good writer in college. My lab reports were minimal. But I had to take a writing course since I had to write for my work and taking one course taught me the basics. I was the only A the prof ever gave, he said at the time. You can learn to write, just like you can learn to play the piano. But paying the mortgage, you need a skill set to get a job.
Everyone in my neighborhood bascially went to college to get a job, and were specific about it. Maybe I am too old on this forum.
Ren
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,007
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Joined: Jul 2011
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Everyone in my neighborhood bascially went to college to get a job, and were specific about it. Maybe I am too old on this forum. The problem with college these days is that the net present value of the future stream of income is not justified by the massive debt. Mostly because universities are being flooded with massive inflows of "free" government money that is then yoked to their marks. I mean students. Yoked to their students.
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 487
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[quote=Val]<snip>Very sad. Courses from The Teaching Company are wonderful in certain ways, but they don't teach people how to read and write. For me, one of the major benefits of a degree in the humanities was that it taught me how to read and how to write --- so I don't see them as replacements for a course at a university. A video can't replace live discussions and essays and the ideas they generate.<snip> /quote]
I wish my courses were like that. Tutorials are now so big and students so focussed on 'what do I have to do to pass' that I just didn't see much of that anyway.
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,690 Likes: 1 |
I believe that college is a certification process. That is what I was brought up to believe. Learning is forever. Just because I took engineering doesn't mean that I cannot spend my life enjoying history, literature. I read Proust from beginning to end, not many engineers can say that I bet. Val mentioned writing. I was not a good writer in college. My lab reports were minimal. But I had to take a writing course since I had to write for my work and taking one course taught me the basics. I was the only A the prof ever gave, he said at the time. You can learn to write, just like you can learn to play the piano. But paying the mortgage, you need a skill set to get a job.
Everyone in my neighborhood bascially went to college to get a job, and were specific about it. Maybe I am too old on this forum.
Ren
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 332
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 332 |
This thread has discussed the relative merits of humanities and more career-oriented majors. Many universities may not be good places to study literature and history, because many of the professors don't respect the subjects they are supposed to be teaching. They have left a vacuum that is being filled, at much less expense, by the Teaching Company (now know as Great Courses), as discussed in a recent essay: http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_the-great-courses.htmlHEATHER MAC DONALD Great Courses, Great Profits: A teaching company gives the public what the academy no longer supplies: a curriculum in the monuments of human thought. City Journal Summer 2011 Joseph Epstein explains why fewer students major in English: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576468011530847064.htmlWhat Killed American Lit. Today's collegians don't want to study it�who can blame them? by Joseph Epstein Wall Street Journal August 27, 2011 I think parents who want their children to be liberally educated should look at home schooling curricula such as the one in the "Well Trained Mind" book for classical homeschoolers. Hmmm Has anyone tried The Great Courses? I went to their site and DH and I just want to buy every DVD on there. Maybe we could justify them as a "homeschooling expense." 
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 2,498
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Joined: Apr 2010
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Island, check your public library before you lay out the funds... ours has several of the courses. Some of them are excellent, some of them less so.
DeeDee
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