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<p>Do you mean Brown University, with no breadth requirements at all (whether science, humanities, or social studies), except for students in ABET-accredited engineering degree programs (who must take some humanities and social studies for the degree program to meet ABET accreditation)?</p>
<p>same as the purpose of education.</p>
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<p>While there may be lacking here, the lack of understanding of STEM subjects among many decision makers in business and politics is also worrisome.</p>
<p>You see, people like the OP are what’s wrong with America.</p>
<p>People here in the U.S. are obsessed with money, obsessed with practicality. If it doesn’t make money, it’s worthless.</p>
<p>The most influential people in the world were liberal arts people. Greek Philosophers? Haha.</p>
<p>You see, in Europe for example, they value the arts, music, their culture. They value the liberal arts, the humanities, the social sciences/</p>
<p>And guess what. In Europe they have a higher quality of living, universal health care, hey guess what? They rank higher in education than us. Oh my god how could that be! They are simply more developed and better countries than us.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with the liberal arts. In fact, they should be celebrated. Imagine a world full of math and science and engineering geeks.</p>
<p>I can’t believe anyone even bothered to comment on this silly thread. OP, I suggest you use this thesis on your college application essay and see how many schools you get into.</p>
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<p>Once again, “liberal arts” includes math and science.</p>
<p>If a university wants to require a “broad liberal arts education” of its students, it should include science courses more than the usual joke “physics for poets” type of courses, in addition to humanities and social studies courses. As it is in most universities, humanities and social studies majors typically take far less course material in STEM subjects than STEM majors take in humanities and social studies. Given the interaction between STEM subjects and humanities and social studies, it may be more important than ever for those majoring in either area to have some knowledge of the other.</p>
<p>The purpose of an education is to be able to advance the human race in some way; liberal arts don’t succeed in doing this.</p>
<p>Imagine a world full of Shakespearean dorks who would write would write worthless poems all day. Europe has a better education than us? Would u like to provide some proof for that statement?</p>
<p>“The reason that Apple is able to create products like iPad is because we always try to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both.”
-Steve Jobs, 2010 iPad launch</p>
<p>“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities that yields the results that makes our hearts sing.”
-Steve Jobs, 2011 iPad 2 launch</p>
<p><a href=“http://commons.nwc.hccs.edu/carswell/files/2011/03/jobs-intersection.png[/url]”>http://commons.nwc.hccs.edu/carswell/files/2011/03/jobs-intersection.png</a></p>
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<p>rofl, this is seriously good</p>
<p>Oh God, I came to the Parents’ Forum to get away from this topic… and now… hand me the benzine, I can’t take anymore!!!</p>
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<p>Well, President Obama, for one.</p>
<p>The original post is kind of funny in that it has a rather narrow definition of “advancing humankind” as does post #44. </p>
<p>One of the more exciting areas of academic research at the moment is behavioral economics, in which the study of why humans don’t behave rationally (as defined by axioms of rational choice) should lead to a better understanding of what actually gives people satisfaction. In some cases, people may want to follow the axioms of rational choice when they understand the irrationality of what they are doing (most people don’t want to choose sub-optimal investment strategies) and we can advance their lives by helping them make more rational choices. Economists/psychologists were able to identify a sometimes highly sub-optimal tendency to maintain the status quo. From this, an economist suggested that setting up retirement plans on an opt-out basis (you have to choose not to invest) rather than an opt-in basis (you have to choose to invest) would change savings rates. The simple choice to have 401(k) and other retirement savings plans be opt-out rather than opt-in causes people to save more for retirement. And guess what, this bias afflicts scientists as well as historians. I’d suggest that helping people save adequately for retirement “advances the human race” and that the help in question derives form what the OP would label the humanities. In other cases, people will be more satisfied knowingly making decisions that economists would not deem rational and in such cases we might design institutions that foster the advancement of that satisfaction. Again, the “humanities” helping “advance humankind.”</p>
<p>And then, there’s art. Most educated people would I think agree that that listening to Mozart or viewing Picasso or Anselm Kiefer enhances life. I’m not sure where that fits into the OP’s definition of advancing man’s lot in life. Some education in the arts might help.</p>
<p>So, no, we shouldn’t abolish the humanities and social sciences. On the other hand, ucbalumnus is correct. The United States seems to be able to turn out a high percentage of citizens who do not have the faintest comprehension of science and technology. They’re thrilled to use their iphones and GPS devices but are easily swayed by strange claims of the riskiness of technology. According to an scientist who also studies science education, most Americans think electricity is in the wall of their house waiting to be tapped by the devices they plug into them and don’t somehow understand anything about electricity. Biotechnology? GMOs? Oh, and there’s that pesky little movement that wants to stop teaching the theory of evolution because “It’s just a theory” without proof and incidentally happens to be inconsistent with fundamentalist religious beliefs. As a country, we make what seems like extraordinarily bad decisions about science and technology. It’s entirely possible that ensuring that people really understand the scientific method and some basic aspects of science would help quite a bit.</p>
<p>Lack of education in math and statistics seems to be almost a badge of pride among many otherwise educated adults (e.g., lawyers). Lack of science education among non-scientists may be even more extensive. Is this different in other countries?</p>
<p>Those of us who make decisions and those of us who advise others making decisions probably recognize that judgment is best informed by a variety of perspectives – scientific, technical, economic, psychological, and philosophical. </p>
<p>My own problem with some of the humanities/social science areas is that they do not seem particularly cumulative. In the sciences, math, economics and even psychology, knowledge accretes. In some areas of the humanities, people keep redefining terms and finding other ways of saying the same things again and again. Every once in a while, a brilliant person comes up with something genuinely new and insightful – a new way of seeing the world or understanding some problem. But, the mass of scholarship in those fields seems hard to justify, except to leave the path of scholarship available for when the rare brilliant one shows up. I wonder if there might be a more efficient way to advance knowledge in these fields.</p>
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<p>Best book I ever read while in college (after maybe, a few others I won’t go into here) was Thomas Kuhn’s “History of Scientific Revolutions” which suggests that theoretical science is far less immune from crises of confidence than you might think. The accumulation of “facts” never fail to reach a point where they begin to contradict each other. And, just as in the social sciences and humanities, someone else comes along with a more elegant (or efficient) way of arranging the same information.</p>
<p>My mind is blown.</p>
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What is this? A college philosophy final? Need some help on your year end paper, OP?</p>
<p>I love this kind of thread, because it gives us an opportunity to unload zingers on a deserving target. Here’s mine:
I don’t need to itemize the contents of a dumpster to conclude that I don’t want to eat any of it.</p>
<p>How are you going to get a degree in a STEM field if you eliminate the study of math and science?</p>
<p>Brief definition of “liberal arts” from Encyclopedia Britannica:</p>
<p>liberal arts, college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. In the medieval European university the seven liberal arts were grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the trivium) and geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy (the quadrivium). In modern colleges and universities the liberal arts include the study of literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science as the basis of a general, or liberal, education.</p>
<p>I think we may be missing a big point in our defense of a liberal arts education. Our economy and our culture demand its continued existence.</p>
<p>If not for liberal arts grads , who would buy non-representational Southwest Art? Who would wear fashionable eyeglasses? Who would ever visit Sedona? Twice or once on purpose? What male would try on “skinny” jeans? Who would exist that ordered tofu? Twice or once on purpose? Who would be around to purchase “crystals”? And most importantly, who would be left that thought Roger Moore was a better James Bond than Sean Connery?</p>
<p>The ripple effect would be devastating. </p>
<p>Our fragile economy just can’t take the hit. Not now. Maybe not ever.</p>
<p>Edit: And for those who don’t “know” me… I’ll add the wink-y ;)</p>
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<p>There are probably about a billion people, most of whom are not liberal arts graduates (or students), who eat tofu on an occasional to frequent basis.</p>
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