Some Colleges Eliminating Classics

On Holy Kaw!, I saw this report, Colleges Say Farewell To Classics, Philosophy Programs. An excerpt:

The New York Times reports that in the midst of a shrunken job market, students and their families are calling for more education that prepares graduates for jobs and internships. In response, some universities are eliminating programs such as American studies, classics, and philosophy and replacing them with more preprofessional majors such as “The English Major in the Workplace” and “just about anything prefixed with ‘bio,’” reports the Times. As a recent graduate myself, I can sympathize with the real anxieties and actual challenges to securing a first job. But at the same time I feel strongly about the importance of developing one’s intellectual capacities outside of a pre-professional context. Learning how to read critically and write clearly, for instance, enables us to be more responsible global citizens. Understanding philosophy and history deepens our sense of universal human fragility and limits hubris. Literature puts us in other people’s shoes and builds compassion...

The New York Times report: "Making College Relevant".