The Decline and Fall of the English Major
nytimes.com
The Decline and Fall of the English Major
1–10 of 160 posts
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#2Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#3It's sad that the classical education is no more, but it's also true that the humanities rotted from within. Because carrying on the traditions of arts and letters was no longer considered valuable, the disciplines rushed to gut themselves in favor of far shallower and dodgier stuff, like political ideologies ("the only things that matter are race, class, and gender") and pseudo-technical gibberish. None of that has lasting value and none of it touches the heart of why a student would want to devote themselves to things like literature, philosophy, or art history. So over the same time period that these fields have been losing social and intellectual status, they've also been becoming less valuable.
They're not going to disappear, and maybe it's a good thing if they become de-institutionalized for a century or two. I admit to being bothered by it, though. By the time I went to university it was already no longer possible to get what I would call a real education. Meanwhile there is a smugness that goes along with purely technical training, a certainty that its way is the only valuable way, that calls itself education but whose true name is Philistinism, and I feel sad that that mentality is taking over our society completely.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#4Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
I like to imagine a bizarro literature based Hacker News where a person is saying "Do you really need a full Comp Sci major to write code? Seems like one or two classes would do."
Of course you don't need to take an English major to write properly. But that is rarely the goal of taking an English major. Very few majors are actually about the mastery of one skill.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#5Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
I like to imagine a bizarro literature based Hacker News where a person is saying "Do you really need a full Comp Sci major to write code? Seems like one or two classes would do." Of course you don't need to take an English major to write properly. But that is rarely the goal of taking an English major. Very few majors are actually about the mastery of one skill.
> I like to imagine a bizarro literature based Hacker News where a person is saying "Do you really need a full Comp Sci major to write code? Seems like one or two classes would do."
Just such claims are made in the "You need to have a degree" / "degrees are worthless" debates held hereabouts on a bi-monthly basis.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#6Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
I like to imagine a bizarro literature based Hacker News where a person is saying "Do you really need a full Comp Sci major to write code? Seems like one or two classes would do." Of course you don't need to take an English major to write properly. But that is rarely the goal of taking an English major. Very few majors are actually about the mastery of one skill.
One or two classes would do, for the vast majority of tasks people accomplish with code. Lots of the more `advanced' topics aren't really that hard to learn on your own.
Besides, when was the last time you looked at the curriculum for a CS or CSE major? There are some code courses, but also lots and lots of of writing, math, and physics.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#7Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
> Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly?
It's not clear to me that majors are things that are studied, especially English ones.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#8Education is what has declined.
The humanities merely show it more, because they aren't particularly useful for the non-education function of university, namely, serving as a hoop which when jumped permits your resume to survive the first and most impersonal culling.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#9Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
Do you need the degree to learn the technical details about how to write in English properly? No.
Do you need the degree to learn a small sampling of the breadth of English literature to draw on for examples, metaphors, similes, tropes and what-not to use in written communications? Probably not, if you're quite well-read.
Do you need the degree to learn how to craft an argument and the differences among presenting it as an essay, a dialogue, a monologue, or poetry? Probably not, especially if you've got the Philosophy degree.
But, if your goal is to communicate effectively, with a wide audience, it doesn't hurt.
And it does not necessarily prevent one from excelling in I/T.
Re: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
#10Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
> Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? It's not clear to me that majors are things that are studied, especially English ones.
I don't follow you. To complete a major you take a certain number of courses in a subject. Or are you suggesting that English majors don't learn anything?