In an earlier post, James Poulos decries the lack of priority
given to the humanities versus the sciences. I am a Ph.D. candidate
in the humanities and have every interest in seeing that area of
inquiry become the focus of dollars and attention. Nevertheless, I
can't bring myself to hope that more students will be steered in
that direction. Although I am a faithful disciple of the
humanities, I often take comfort in the fact that the majority of
students won't have much exposure to the offerings on hand. Better
they remain busy with their business and engineering degrees than
that they should hear too much of the soul-killing discourses that
reign in the older buildings on campus.
Now, I acknowledge that the situation could be improved. I
presented a paper at a conference at Oglethorpe University in
Atlanta put on by people like Joseph Knippenberg and Peter
Augustine Lawler. Dr. Knippenberg asked me to dinner where I met
several faculty members from around the state who were a bit
(SSSSSHHHHH) conservative and maybe even (quietly now) Christian.
All in all, it was delightful time and I would have been pleased to
trust my children's higher education into the hands of such people
without a second thought.
At this point, at least, I'm not persuaded that the type of
folks I met in Atlanta are adequately represented on faculties
around the country. And if not, then I'm not sure we should want to
see more young minds filled with the deliverances of the
discipline, love it though I do.
topics:
Education, Business, Law
