Does Liberal Education Have a Future?

Timothy Burns, Professor of Political Science at Baylor University, opens a symposium on the Future of Liberal Education (subscription required) by saying that 

Liberal education is becoming rare in America. At the time of the founding it was de rigeur for anyone who aspired to public life. In 1900, it remained the norm in America’s colleges. And as the “core curricula” of colleges and universities in 1950 attest, it remained the central, defining feature of undergraduate education as late as the mid-twentieth century. Today it is uncommon.

The symposiasts thoughtfully address a variety of questions, starting with the central ones - what is liberal education and why does it matter if it is threatened? In his introductory remarks, Timothy Burns nicely sketches some of  the main questions considered more fully  in the papers: 

Liberal education is becoming rare in America. At the time of the founding it was de rigeur for anyone who aspired to public life. In 1900, it remained the norm in America’s colleges. And as the “core curricula” of colleges and universities in 1950 attest, it remained the central, defining feature of undergraduate education as late as the mid-twentieth century. Today it is uncommon. The vast majority of students graduating from state universities and colleges follow curricula that prepare them, or so they hope, for lucrative jobs. As for private universities and liberal arts colleges, with a few noteworthy exceptions, only administrators charged with raising funds still claim that there is or should be a coherent and common liberal education of their students. Their watchword is “diversity,” and their courses are more and more specialized in areas of peculiar interest to their faculty.

Study Abroad Opportunities in Italy

Ashland University now has some good opportunities to study abroad in Italy.  To find out more, come to an Information Meeting on Thursday, November 7th, 4:30 @ Ashbrook Center

Some of the options: 

American University of Rome

Semester & summer programs available - Take courses for your major/minor or core
Sample courses:

• HSSO 312: Mussolini's Rome
• HST 200: History of Modern Italy
• ARC 100: On-Location Roman Archeology
• CLHS 314: From Old Rome to New Rome: Transition of the Empire in Late Antiquity
• ENG 309: Shakespere's Italian Plays
• ENG 411: The Literature of War: Europe & WWI
• Languages: Italian, Latin or Greek

Lorenzo de Medici - Florence or Tuscania

Semester & summer programs available - Take courses for your major/minor or core. Sample courses:

• CLA 215: Florentia: the Ancient Roots of Florence 
• HIS 246: War in the Ancient World
• CLA 306: The Age of the Heroes: Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid and the Origins of W. Literature
• HIS 150: Europe: Antiquity to French Revolution
• HIS 250: The Quarters of Florence: History and Culture
• HIS 254: The Catholic Church and Society in Italy
• HIS 295: Women of the Medici

Dissertation Defended

Emily Hess, who has been teaching American History in the department for several years, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation last Friday.  Her degree in History is from Case Western Reserve University  in Cleveland.  Congratulations Emily!

The Decline in Study Time at College

In "Leisure College, USA," Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks try to explain why American undergraduates in 2003 spent on average 10 hours less per week studying than their peers did in 1961. Colleges and universities often say that students should study two hours for every hour of class time. On this measure, a rough standard would be that students should study for about 30 hours/week, so a drop from 24 hours (in 1961) to 14 (in 2003) is huge and suggests that students now spend about half as much time studying as they ought to in order to get the most out of their educations. Babcock and Marks canvass several reasons why this decline in study time has occurred, but the reason they find most plausible is that instructors have eased up on standards at the same time as students, being more empowered than ever, appear to want more leisure.  So more people are going to college, but they are learning less while there.

Should we be alarmed by this development? Yes, if "human capital" - a population with a high level of knowledge and skills - is important, both for individuals and for the country.  If, as we are often told, students go to college to get a job, they too should want to work harder.  Here's why:

The NLSY79 includes data on time use in college and long-run wages, allowing us to combine time-use data from students who were in college in 1981 with subsequent wage data for these students at two-year intervals from 1986 to 2004. We find that postcollege wages are positively correlated with study time in college. The increase in wages associated with studying is small in the early postcollege years, but it grows over time, becoming large and statistically significant in the later years. By 2004, one standard deviation in hours studied in 1981 is associated with a wage gain of 8.8 percent.[14] We do not claim to have proved a causal effect, but we conclude--consistent with common sense and the intuitions of educators--that increased effort in college is associated with increased productivity later in life.

The Vocational Utility of History

This essay by Anthony M. Cummings (published on www.insidehighered.com) uses the example of the Italian Renaissance to argue that history, and more generally, the humanities can be defended for their vocational utility. We believe that arguments about vocational utility miss the essence of the humanities, but in a democracy citizens need to make a living and Cummings offers some useful suggestions for how the capacities developed by the humanities (including ethical judgment, awareness of the social and political context, aesthetic sensibilities, foreign languages, and rhetoric) are useful for careers in fields as varied as bioethics, urban planning, diplomacy, politics, and art conservation.  Here is the whole essay:

History shows: the humanities have vocational utility (essay) Insidehighered.com

Submitted by Anthony M. Cummings on October 10, 2013 - 3:00am

The current state and future prospects of the humanities are occasioning considerable anxious comment.  Many humanists are sadly resigned to a belief that the humanities have irrevocably ceded pride of place to the social sciences and sciences; and, indeed, the social sciences and sciences generate and command much intellectual energy in the 21st-century university, for understandable reasons.

The usual remedies proposed for this state of affairs have seemed to me to be limited at best and perhaps even misguided. A typical argument for the utility of the humanistic disciplines is that studying them enhances critical thought and powers of expression, and one would certainly agree.

But I wonder whether such an argument will gain much traction with college-age students and especially their parents. The data suggest a clear national trend away from the humanistic disciplines toward those that seem to offer a different kind of promise or outcome: a vocational utility or practical applicability. Under such circumstances, abstract arguments about the enhancement of critical thought – no matter how skillfully they are advanced, no matter how much one might agree with them – are less likely to prevail.

I propose here one different kind of case for the humanities, one that identifies – and celebrates – their specific vocational utility.

Congressional Intern

This summer, Cory Odenkirk (Political Science, 2014) worked as a Congressional Intern in the Washington, D.C. offices of Representative Bob Gibbs. Cory helped the full time staff prepare legislation, including the Farm Bill, the Immigration Bill, and a Transportation Bill on high speed rail; he also handled various aspects of constituent affairs including Capital tours and answering mail and phone calls.  He was also able to attend Agriculture, Budget, Transportation, and Foreign Affairs committee hearings as well as attend presentations by Chuck Todd, Steve Forbes, Senate Chaplain Barry Black, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey, Senator Cruz, Majority Whip McCarthy, among many other interesting business people and politicians.

Awesome Study Abroad Opportunities

Check out the AU Global Education Office for some great study abroad opportunities next summer. Two trips that involve History and Political Science professors and/or courses are the World War II trip, led by Dr. John Moser and the AU in Germany trip, on which Dr. Rene Paddags will be teaching History 113 "Western Civilization."  At the link above you can watch short videos about each trip.

Dr. Sikkenga Interviewed on the Government Shutdown

AU's radio station, 88.9 WRDL - Ashland, interviewed Professor Jeffrey Sikkenga this week on the government shutdown.  You can listen to the interview here: http://wrdlfm.com/2013/10/08/eagle-exchange-108-government-shutdown/.