tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post6713606305631565206..comments2024-02-11T20:52:16.296-08:00Comments on Remaking the University II: Knowledge Rebellion: Brave New STEM University; Or, the Myth of Student DemandChris Newfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01078395415386100872noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-13009258782742970902019-05-11T14:01:31.612-07:002019-05-11T14:01:31.612-07:00@Chris - Now you've done it. You've gotten...@Chris - Now you've done it. You've gotten popular enough to attract Indian spam.CapitalistImperialistPighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17523405806602731435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-84429475271684252112019-05-09T13:09:10.560-07:002019-05-09T13:09:10.560-07:00@unknown - Let's not make the mistake of think...@unknown - Let's not make the mistake of thinking that the humanities have some special claim on critical thinking. For the past 160 years, the deepest insights into human nature have come from science: especially biology, psychology, archaeology, and neuroscience. In fact, humanities professionals are far more ignorant of science than scientists are of the humanities. As for critical thinking, what could be more uncritical than the type of magical thinking that imagines that simply calling student choices a "myth" is going to change them. Who is the audience for this nonsense? Some particularly self-deluding subset of humanities professors? I can't believe university leaders will swallow it.CapitalistImperialistPighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17523405806602731435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-48750995027779185752019-05-09T06:06:58.664-07:002019-05-09T06:06:58.664-07:00The STEM fields need the balance of the humanities...The STEM fields need the balance of the humanities: Go read C.P.Snow's "The Two Cultures" and "The Two Cultures: Revisited." The two areas have a symbiotic relationship. The consequences of technology need to be explored by critical thinking in terms of history, consequences, philosophy, and the ability to communicate among each other and to others. For an example, understanding of inventions in the STEM fields is promoted by studying the history, philosophy, and literature of the times in which the inventions came into being. I have been involved in this for almost six decades and have been horrified at the erosion of humanities. Just look at where we are today. Critical thinking is all but dead in our society. <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12168870364342244332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-15444116861343543222019-05-08T11:33:43.275-07:002019-05-08T11:33:43.275-07:00The myth of student demand resembles the myth of c...The myth of student demand resembles the myth of consumer demand. Consumers buy what producers produce. If universities produce commodities, students will "buy" them, and in turn become commodities themselves.Geoffrey Skollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16573362174623518032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-22306532899567671412019-05-08T11:30:49.679-07:002019-05-08T11:30:49.679-07:00@CapitalistImperialistPig
The myth of student dema...@<a href="#c266732995414596640" rel="nofollow">CapitalistImperialistPig</a><br />The myth of student demand resembles the myth of consumer demand. Consumers buy what producers produce. Students "buy" what universities produce. If universities produce commodities, students will buy them, and in turn become commodities themselves.Geoffreyy Skollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-19853919702228252762019-05-07T23:39:01.677-07:002019-05-07T23:39:01.677-07:00Chris, you might want to work on your critical rea...Chris, you might want to work on your critical reading skills. The two points you claim for the article are virtually unmentioned by the author. Instead, she focuses on preparing students for the "simmering civil war" and on the folly of teaching students what they actually want to study.<br /><br />I also take exception to your claim that I always write the same thing. If you bothered to read what I write, you might notice that I write on politics, human nature, philosophy, history, oligarchy and modern capitalism, and, especially, about books, literary, history, frivolous, scientific, and other. See, e.g., CapitalistImperialistPig@blogspot.comCapitalistImperialistPighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17523405806602731435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-61397965338944718742019-05-07T23:06:11.881-07:002019-05-07T23:06:11.881-07:00@Chris Newfield
I apologize if I am again repeati...@<a href="#c418618140220121290" rel="nofollow">Chris Newfield</a><br /><br />I apologize if I am again repeating myself, but I greatly value the humanities. I just think the author's defense leaves a lot to be desired. She writes that the value of the humanities to prepare students for the "simmering civil war." She also assumes that students only avoid the humanities because they are dumb enough to swallow propaganda that STEM pays better. That's not really propaganda, that's fact, at least at the entry level.<br /><br />Humanities courses are valuable for everybody, including, probably especially, scientists and engineers. But scientists and engineers are taught to suspect bullshit, and bullshit peddlers like your author are not going to draw them in.CapitalistImperialistPighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17523405806602731435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-4186181402201212902019-05-07T21:41:11.679-07:002019-05-07T21:41:11.679-07:00@CapitalistImperialistPigCIP you always say the sa...@<a href="#c266732995414596640" rel="nofollow">CapitalistImperialistPig</a>CIP you always say the same thing. No one is saying a BA shouldn't have economic value. It should and does. The claims in the post are (1) degrees also bring non-economic values and (2) the humanities fields have plenty of both. Chris Newfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01078395415386100872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-2667329954145966402019-05-07T11:37:06.258-07:002019-05-07T11:37:06.258-07:00Maybe one reason for the decline of the humanities...Maybe one reason for the decline of the humanities is the pervasive presence of the kind of tedious propaganda being peddled by the authors. Not only peddled, but cloaked in ludicrous pseudo postmodern rhetoric: "...“student demand” is a construct: it is the product of a pervasive, cross-institutional pedagogy in social and educational value in which students are immersed from (at least) primary school onward."<br /><br />Maybe it is constructed by students who realize they are taking on a substantial amount of debt to get an education and expect it to have economic value. Academics like the authors who seem to think they are instructing the pampered children of privilege need to get real. It would also help if they learned to write and speak English instead of recycling the tired tropes of yesteryear's would be revolutions. CapitalistImperialistPighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17523405806602731435noreply@blogger.com