[lbo-talk] Terry Eagleton on "The death of universities"

[Miles Jackson]

On 12/21/2010 05:44 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> Joanna: "But rather than argue about when our notion of the "humanities" was
> shaped, I'd rather point out that this is a great door opening for the left:
> to create and make available material for those who want to understand this
> subject matter.  THe CP took this kind of thing very seriously, making a lot
> of this stuff accessible and comprehensible to the masses as part of a
> general literacy/education campaign."
>
>
> [WS:]  This would work only if it were a supply-side restriction (which was
> likely the case when the CP launched the said effort.)  But today, I am
> afraid, this is mainly the demand side restriction  - i.e. the utter lack of
> interest in studying these subjects among students.

Interestingly, that is not happening at community colleges in my state 
(WA).  Humanities course enrollments are healthy and growing.  In fact, 
as a budget reduction strategy, we're decreasing sections of some high 
cost vocational courses and adding back more humanities and social 
science courses.  Granted, these classes aren't intimate graduate 
seminars, but they do help sustain the meaning and purpose of the 
humanities in our society.

Miles