The decline in English majors precedes an overall decline in college attendance, I hope. Regarding STEM long term prospects, well, a lot of graduates there simply aren’t very good. Rigorizing standards would lower the STEM unemployment rate. But every school’s got to make a buck.
Maybe instead of English majors, these kids could spend a stint in the military. Or join an orchestra. Or work in sales at a car dealership. Something that involves developing a skill and exercising discipline.
To imply that the pursuit and achievement of an English undergraduate degree confers absolutely zero benefit or skill (or that everything even needs to be a “skill”, but that’s another conversation) is inaccurate at best. The ability to parse complex written information/documentation and distill value from it as well as to clarify your own thoughts in writing and communication is absolutely valuable and enriching for an individual.
Though I could very well be wrong and it is an absolutely useless degree, after all, I majored in philosophy ;)
You can train people in reading and good writing far more efficiently than an English degree. Edit: And I'd value students who take their study more seriously a lot more, but most are just third-rate students at third-rate schools getting a piece of paper.
This is all nonsense. You know, it's like when we say communication is important in the workplace. I don't want to replace my engineer with a communications major. I want all the engineering prowess and the communication skill multiplies that effectiveness. If I get a comm major I get engineering prowess of zero multiplied by some amount of comm skill and that's useless. I don't want that.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 26.5 ms ] threadHaving well rounded citizens is good, but I don't think that means we need more English majors struggling to make a living.
Maybe instead of English majors, these kids could spend a stint in the military. Or join an orchestra. Or work in sales at a car dealership. Something that involves developing a skill and exercising discipline.
Though I could very well be wrong and it is an absolutely useless degree, after all, I majored in philosophy ;)