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“During the past decade, the study of English and history at the collegiate level has fallen by a full third. Humanities enrollment in the United States has declined over all by seventeen per cent, Townsend [Robert Townsend, the co-director of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators project] found…And American scholars…have begun to wonder what it might mean to graduate a college generation with less education in the human past than any that has come before.” The New York Times, 2/27/2023
American academics are posing a profound question: What will it mean to our country “to graduate a college generation with less education about the human past than any that has come before”. I think it will mean a lot—more than our political system can withstand, given the lack of a basic understanding of how our government should work by more than a few of our current elected officials and well over a majority of the U.S. population — almost 50% of America adults cannot name the three branches of government and just over half of our population understands that “a 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court becomes the law of the land.”
My somewhat educated guess is a robust education in both government and the humanities will help our country avoid what can happen with curriculums that produce a “college generation with less education about the human past than any that has come before”.
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I’d love to hear what you think about our declining civics curriculum in K-12, and colleges dropping many liberal arts majors to “better position them (the colleges) for the future. Or anything else you take from this post—your comments are welcome and appreciated!
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