Explaining the Decline in English Majors
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61 responses to “Explaining the Decline in English Majors”
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One thing that seems to be a constant through the generations is that each generation has it’s share of grumpy Conservatives whining about change.
geeze.
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Jim, you are cherry-picking. Looking over that schedule of courses, I found the core of a traditional English major–from Beowulf to Updike. I agree with you about those courses you listed–they smack of faculty members trying to show how hip they are. However, one could easily earn an English major without taking any of those classes.
What is really behind the decline in the humanities and liberal arts in general is the push to make higher education a job training experience. Corporations complain that their new hires are not able to express themselves well in written form and lack analytical skills, but insist on hiring MBAs and computer programmers.
English majors are not destined to dusty books. Some very successful folks were English majors in college, including Mitt Romney, Andrea Jung (former Avon CEO), Harold Varmus (Nobel Laureate in Medicine), Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Anne Mulcahy (former CEO of Xerox), and Hank Paulson (former Secretary of the Treasury).
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Cherry picking? Perhaps you missed this sentence: “The Bible, Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austin get their due.”
I didn’t think Bacon’s Rebellion readers needed an explanation. “Plants and Empire” probably did.
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“Plants and Empire” sounds like a video game combining “Plants vs. Zombies” with “World of Empires”.
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I did not see the course on cherry picking. Limited to field hands?
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Yet it is your forte…
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“Plants and Empire” sounds like a video game combining “Plants vs. Zombies” with “World of Empires”.
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What is really behind the decline in the humanities and liberal arts in general is the push to make higher education a job training experience.
Very true. One of my greatest regrets from my college years is that I did not supplement my engineering major with a minor in English or History.
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I agree. I feel the same way. Took one English course (writing) because it was required and no history courses.
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I took a couple of English courses as well as a full year of Russian History. But unless you could afford to stick around an extra quarter or two, the Va. Tech Engineering curriculum allowed for very few “free electives”. To avoid possibly delaying my graduation I took 23-24 credit hours per quarter the year I studied Russian History
I am pretty sure the Engineering curriculum at Tech is still light on free electives today.
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I was lucky or unlucky to acquire the dreaded 5th year in engineering. I was also required by ROTC to take a 400 level Military History class. That history minor hasn’t got use, but I’ve got it.
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Good for you.
At this point in my life I don’t really need a history or English minor, but I think earning it while in college would have made me a more well rounded person.
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Being it was history, it was at least enjoyable to me.
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I’m not sure about MBAs and computer programmers lacking analytical skills but they sure can’t write!
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Precision in writing is exceptionally important in some fields – like weapons systems and medical systems that people’s lives depend on, airline safety, etc. Sloppy writing can kill people in some fields.
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The writing skills of today’s young people – especially those with business and technology degrees – is abysmal.
Even when lives don’t depend on what is written, companies’
futures do. Sales proposals, website material, training materials, etc … all need good quality writing.-
I agree. I’ve seen it when I was reading resumes and as you know I’m no winner at grammar and punctuation. In some fields , it’s an annoyance. In others, it can have real consequences.
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I remember the days when computer equipment and software came with a manual and it was well written.
Then you started getting manuals that were a bad translation, at best.
Today, you get no manual at all.
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But RTFM is still the first rule of tech support.:)
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Worked better back when there was an FM to R, and said FM was very detailed.
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Last bunch of motherboards I got still had FMs, and considerable information.
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They didn’t just have a sticker with a QR code for a link to some support website?
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Nope, actual printed books. MSI mobos in 4 languages no less.
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Color me impressed!
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That is technical writing. It is very important, but a different skill entirely from creative writing.
Some of us have deluded ourselves into believing we’ve got at least rudimentary writing and analysis skills. We do pretty well with If Then statements too:)
I can’t work! I was trained to think.
When I took #1 to JMU to consider attending, there were a number of young women wearing purple tee shirts with the slogan ‘JMU English. Going for broke’…
The decline and fall of the English major empire. Lack of reverence by “deconstructing the great works of literature.” A metamorphosis, degradation of the tried and true. Change can be difficult as the world turns. The UVa English course replacements symbolize replacement fears to alter an academy once more easily understood.
“Declining funding for the humanities.”
Strike one.
“The rise of social media and the diminution of of attention spans.”
Strike two.
“The surging cost of a college degree and practical decisions by students to master disciplines with a greater financial payoff.”
Craaack! It’s a deep fly ball to left. Going, going, gone!
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The good old days were where one could go and spend 4 years on campus getting a liberal arts degree with little concern of cost.
Those days are gone except for the rich and those who are stupid about finances.
Today, people want a degree to get them a good job and not so much a laid back liberal arts education.
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Hmmnn! VA’s Marymount just announced cancellation of 10 degree programs including English, math, and theology due to declining enrollment.
Regarding the decline in writing skills, UVa offers a couple dozen writing classes. I assume that they are ideologically neutral, but that may depend upon the faculty member or graduate student teaching the class.
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Ideologically-neutral you say?
You know the English language is nothing but a racist, Euro-Centric construct, the global spread of which has been foisted upon the world to perpetuate and prop-up status quo, patriarchal, white-supremacist societies, right?
That being the case, I do not see how any English class can be considered “ideologically-neutral” by anyone, except perhaps hate-filled racists an misogynists.
😉
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Ideologically-neutral you say?
You know the English language is nothing but a racist, sexist, Euro-Centric construct, the global spread of which has been foisted upon the world to perpetuate and prop-up status quo, patriarchal, white-supremacist societies, right?
That being the case, I do not see how anyone can consider any English class “ideologically-neutral” – except perhaps hate-filled racists and misogynists.
😉
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You may be onto something. Why would hate-filled racists and mysogynists avoid such a tantalizing course description at Raging U?
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“Euro-Centric construct”
The vast majority of my European ancestors did not speak English.
I suppose the sort of nit-wits that truly believe what you facetiously wrote about the English language probably think that all of Europe is just like the UK–that they all speak English and drive on the left side of the road.
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I thought about using “Anglo-centric” but I decided to go with “Euro” for the exact reason you noted in your comment.
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“Euro-Centric construct”
The vast majority of my European ancestors did not speak English.
I suppose the sort of nit-wits that truly believe what you facetiously wrote about the English language probably think that all of Europe is just like the UK–that they all speak English and drive on the left side of the road.
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Generation that snidely disregarded fields of study as being useless wonders why enrollment on those fields are down.
Hmmm, must be something Woke, I’m sure.
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When aeronautical engineers were cutting grass, Conservatives lamented the prospects of the history and basket weaving majors. Solution, B School!
For those truly worried about woke indoctrination in higher ed and MSM “bias”:
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Umm, I didn’t know Tucker Carlson or Fox News was an institution of higher learning, or a State Agency.
If you like, I am sure I can find a few juicy headlines from the View, or Joy Reid, or Don Lemon, or Chris Cuomo (well, nothing current here).
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Indoctrination in higher ed and media “bias”…. looks bad…. but knew FOX
was that way all along… lying about the election , supporting Trump, Jan 6… lord lord-
Really? Your really going there? This has nothing to do with the topic, AND, while there were a few Fox shows and anchors supporting Trump on the allegation, there were other Fox anchors and personalities who explicitly said these allegations were not backed up. Bunk.
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sure. If we’re worried about kids getting “indoctrinated”, shouldn’t we also worry
about gullible adults who watch TV and believe conspiracy theories promoted by
well known personalities (who knew it was false and still did it?) Pretty bad.
Which FOX folks said it was bunk? Don’t see it in WSJ… my “go to” about FOX. -
I didn’t say certain Fox anchors said it was bunk, I said Fox certain anchors said it wasn’t backed up. My bunk comment is that you are bringing this up in an article about UVA, which I know the Moderators don’t want to see, so I am going to bring up one instance and drop it.
I vividly remember Cavuto. Here is a link to an article written about him a week or so after the election where if you scroll down he points out that there had not yet been any support of the allegations. I recall he was making these comments consistently, as were others.
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what do you mean by “backed up”. If Hannity says something, what does it mean to be “backed up”?
Cavuto is one of very few but if most other anchors are saying something in prime time and Cavuto is saying “no” in non-prime time – you consider that sufficient in calling it out for the nighttime FOX Viewers?
Yes, the “I” word, indoctrination is in this blog post and in others and in general the claim that untrue things are being promoted to various audiences …. true that.
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So I watch about an hour of Fox a day, very little Hannity but a bit of Tucker, Gutfield, WSJ Report, Fox News Sunday, etc. I am telling you there were several on air challenging the narrative Trump was pushing, period. I’m not going to try and wade back over two years ago to find clips, I found one on Cavuto and am moving on.
I’m also telling you I can easily find false narratives being pushed by Left Wing media all day long. But none of that is relevant here, just like your bringing up Fox in an article about colleges.
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Ok, I’ll let it drop.
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JAB, why are you lamenting the decline in the humanities? You should be high fiving the success of the Conservative agenda… going all the way back to Buckley’s first book… congratulations!!
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It’s VERY “traditional” for conservatives… ” Why back in the day we had none of that stuff going on”….
2nd Tier law school graduates make fine personal injury lawyers and wait staff.
Razors? How about phasers! Nobody is going to be indoctrinated; however mom and dad’s basement is full of unemployed English majors.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/79d0e07b1a1e0ea15c1ba70d8e3852ce/tumblr_p9znq86j6P1qmob6ro1_500.gifv
Exactly, Jim
Homer Simpson: “Why do I need to take English? I’m never going to go to England…”
Consider the source 🙂
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And then there’s Ralph Wiggum: “Me fail English? That’s unpossible”.
English Lit. is Racist.
Math is Racist.
History is Racist.
Engineering is very Racist.
Chemistry is Racist.
Computer Science is Racist.
can anyone be surprised that a declining number of students find any of this engaging?
I would’ve been very engaged in these courses! They sounds like they’d foster critical thinking.
Jim Bacon notes the decline of college English majors due to the Marxism of English professors, the competition of STEM skills and courses, and perhaps especially the professoriate’s “post-modernist” (PoMo) “deconstructionism,” the discovery of hidden meanings that supposedly support elites.
This “theory” is built on language that is often vague, abstract, circular, self-referential, shape-shifting, and pointlessly ironic and self-congratulatory. It takes a hard heart to read this stuff and not giggle. Remember Mel Brooks’s “Blazing Saddles”: An ancient mountain man at a town meeting delivers an unintelligible rant about “hornswoggling, bushwhacking varmints.” In the ensuing stunned silence, a citizen rises to thank the old fellow for demonstrating to the children present a sample of “authentic frontier gibberish.”
Speaking of gibberish, in 1996 NYU physicist Alan Sokal submitted an article purporting to “deconstruct quantum gravity” to a PoMo journal which quickly published it. Alas, it was all [intentional] authentic gibberish, terribly embarrassing many literary folk who took it seriously.
So then it should be no surprise that many students prefer to follow the paths of Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman — as profound as Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, but also with methods that can produce results, that can lead to a salary, that has little tolerance for BS.
Why would any normal 20 year-old want to invest in the courses unearthed by Mr. Bacon? Consider the first three, which I tried to translate or raise questions about (and then gave up. Life is too short.):
Course description # 1, Displacement and Migration: “Through comparative analysis, we will discuss the various intersections between and divergences among these texts, paying particular attention to the shared histories the texts evidence. Our goal is to form interpretive arguments that address the ways in which the texts negotiate ideas about the nation, nation building, and national belonging.”
Huh?
Its meaning, however, is clearer (partly) when we reduce the words from those 52 words to these 11: “We will compare and contrast how these texts address national identity.”
BTW, Professors of English should have higher standards than amateurs and not use a noun as a verb. Texts may contain, but are not, “evidence.” Compare the similar pseudo-cowboy trope, “Ah suspicion that the hosses stampeded out of the south forty, Podner.” (WARNING: Talking this way is illegal east of Wyoming.)
Course description # 2, Introduction to Modernist Fiction, says, in summary, that the student will read novels in which speakers lack reality, identity or meaning, yet violate taboos. (From 50 words to 16). No word on whether the reading list is in invisible ink.
Course description #3, Resistance in Black Film and Literature “will . . . interact with (read?) texts that highlight (how?) that resistance, though difficult and taxing, brings about positive change.”
Three quick questions to make some sense here: How will you know it’s positive? Is change always good? Are there analytic methods the course will teach and its students learn that they can use later?
The most blatant of the Bacon collection is the “Sally Hemings University” course description. I leave it to the reader to be astonished by it.
Finally, I would like to defend one oft-cited “cause” of academic decline. Yes, the internet distracts, but it can supplement classroom learning, repeating lectures, and showing beautiful graphics that make obsolete trying to see curves on a blackboard. Now we can “see” as never before functions and derivatives; cosmic inflation; relativity on moving trains, falling rockets, dropping elevators; the double-slit experiment; the double helix; Brownian motion . . . .
The internet also allows us to experience poetry the way it is meant, by the ear. Try Shelley’s “Ozymandias” read by Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), and Kipling’s “Road to Mandalay” read by Charles Dance. I’d bet that you don’t need an English professor, nor anyone else, to explain it to you and you don’t have be exact.
So, for literature, I say: read the books; listen on the internet; DIY. For professional work like credited courses, bring on the STEM.
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