Voices heard: humanities in the public media. How the arts of communication allow deeper and broader conversation. From the article: Eric Garcia McKinley [a History Ph.D.] will eventually try to engage with underrepresented communities, informing how Minnesota Public Radio’s journalists approach issues of identity and perspective. His academic background has prepared him for that job, something journalists [...]
STEM requires the humanities to grow: why learning classics along with coding is the best way forward. From the editorial: Promoting science and technology education to the exclusion of the humanities may seem like a good idea, but it is deeply misguided. Scientific American has always been an ardent supporter of teaching STEM: science, technology, engineering and [...]
Merging Human with Artificial Intelligence: The Reality of Sam Altman. The co-founder of Y Combinator considers the consequences of technology. From the article: On a trip to New York, Altman dropped by my apartment one Saturday to discuss how tech was transforming our view of who we are. Curled up on the sofa, knees [...]
Education is useless (or rather: is education useless?): a neighborly discussion about what’s worth learning, and where one should learn what's needed -- or useful -- for life. Crimpet: Hello, neighbor. Crumpet: Why are you so happy, Crimpet? You look like you won the office pool. Crimpet: Nothing as wonderful as that. But I’m glad to [...]
The costs of learning: prudent parents have thought of better investments than financing the studies of their children I am thinking of something I heard in Bologna, where I was a student, from a certain honorable citizen, the father of a legal scholar, who told me more than once that there was nothing he regretted as much [...]
No literature allowed: parents see little need for their children to receive a broad university education, as its ROI seems negligible. From the article: For me, there’s nothing more depressing than meeting incoming freshmen at Mason who have declared themselves as accounting majors. They’re 18 years old, they haven’t had a chance to take a course in [...]
Sifting through and sifting out: ways employers are testing the college degree. Do employers (and students) expect too much from university education, or too little? From the article: According to the Gallup-Lumina survey, only 11 percent of employers think graduating students have the skills that their businesses need. It’s not as though degree holders are only falling [...]
Solve problems, find work, enjoy automation: how technology enhances the value of the humanities. From the article: The final section of this paper reflects on how recent and future advances in artificial intelligence and robotics should shape our thinking about the likely trajectory of occupational change and employment growth. I argue that the interplay between machine and [...]
The humanities bring home the bacon: a Canadian study looks at the earnings power of humanities and liberal arts graduates. From the article: [Ross Finnie, Director of Ottawa's Education Policy Research Initiative] says more research can help pinpoint the soft skills and figure out how post-secondary institutions can help develop them. “If we identify those skills, we can [...]
Business people need the liberal arts: why more than specialization is required to succeed in business when you're really trying. From the article: Businesses want workers who have “the ability to think, the ability to write, the ability to understand the cultural or historical context of whatever business decision they’re making,” added Rachel Reiser, assistant [...]
