re: #174 allegro

We used to, as a country, understand that a liberal arts degree had value.

Yes, be we need to look at that in the light of the times.

America in the 18th century would have been mostly illiterate. Many women did not go to school, and the boys who did get schooling often only had the basic education of reading. Slaves - don’t even think about educating them.

19th century: school construction becomes more wide spread. Girls go to school. Many people get through 8th grade. By the end of the century the majority of Americans could read, at least.

Early 20th century - the gadgets produced by the industrial revolution change society. All of a sudden academic fields explode with discoveries. Being smart was “in”.

WWII - “the bomb” changes the world, and the bomb makers (physicist greatly) become mini-gods in the eyes of establishment.

Cultural revolution - the liberal arts become “liberal” in a more modern political sense and the wider American society sees colleges as the enemy.

Post cultural revolution (today) - the gullible ones in society still buy the idea that academia are the enemy because of [abortion] (plug in your favorite social warfare topic). So we elect a President who makes sure not to speak over an elementary-school level language.

I don’t know where we’ll go from here. The idiocracy looms… but I want to believe that being “smart” will come back into style.