tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post8085947638623636588..comments2024-03-10T09:24:45.565+02:00Comments on Dispatches from Vilnius: Traditional History Classes Disappearing?James Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05901612633415337879noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post-76375753772895658942009-06-12T18:43:45.513+03:002009-06-12T18:43:45.513+03:00Yes, but as the past decade (or more) has demonstr...Yes, but as the past decade (or more) has demonstrated, those who have no sense of history are doomed and doomed again to repeat it.avrdshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07997163948247445009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post-15962783019889705052009-06-12T18:32:24.396+03:002009-06-12T18:32:24.396+03:00Hard to imagine us going back to a traditional Hum...Hard to imagine us going back to a traditional Humanities program judging by how much computers and the information highway have come to dominate our lives. I think history is one of those things you can only begin to really appreciate when you turn 40.James Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05901612633415337879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post-46352312087449938722009-06-12T17:06:40.758+03:002009-06-12T17:06:40.758+03:00Maybe the model of the four year college/universit...Maybe the model of the four year college/university needs to be reconsidered. <br /><br />I think education needs to address the legacy issue as Chesterton says above, but it also needs to prepare students to function in the world today which is very different than the one even we were born into (I'm assuming we're all around the same age here). So reading widely and deeply can both be avrdshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07997163948247445009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post-24260707921798111692009-06-12T07:18:53.618+03:002009-06-12T07:18:53.618+03:00I noticed that when I was in college some 30 years...I noticed that when I was in college some 30 years ago, history had already been demoted to pretty much an ancilliary department of the university. In undergrad, you could take a history or economics or language class as your elective. In architecture college, there were two so-called arch. history classes and a building arts class, but they were pretty much blow-off classes. I guess we have &James Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05901612633415337879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post-91553796233923377652009-06-12T05:46:05.363+03:002009-06-12T05:46:05.363+03:00Something similar has happened in English departme...Something similar has happened in English departments. The dead white male writers, whose work used to monopolize literature textbooks and reading lists, don't get nearly as much space any more. <br /><br />In recent years, for instance, we in the humanities have been conditioned to view words like “great” and “masterpiece” with something akin to suspicion and mistrust. The W. W. Norton Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01343768762996537750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post-40080981697362998122009-06-12T04:35:24.478+03:002009-06-12T04:35:24.478+03:00Two views of education:
"Education, the Engl...Two views of education:<br /><br />"Education, the English writer and thinker G.K. Chesterton once remarked, "is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another."<br /><br />Cutting education is like eating your seed corn, you fill your belly now but starve later.<br /><br />So, which of these views does the change in focus avrds describes fit with?NYT Perduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05799504399477460783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9103772230302021699.post-30235155908381202302009-06-11T23:27:51.111+03:002009-06-11T23:27:51.111+03:00I don't think the additions of gender studies ...I don't think the additions of gender studies and other areas are bad, but it comes at the expense of history being pushed out generally from the overall curriculum. There is a renewed interest in improving science literacy of undergraduates, which is good, but it's often at the expense of history and political science or the humanities, which isn't so good. <br /><br />Plus, most avrdshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07997163948247445009noreply@blogger.com