At Stanford University, nearly 45 percent of faculty members for undergraduates are in humanities departments — but fewer and fewer students are taking those classes. Fewer than 18 percent of undergraduate applicants have a primary interest in the humanities. Schools nationally are seeing more students pick pre-professional majors that they see as having a more direct route to a job after college. Only about 7 percent of undergraduates major in the humanities nationally. That’s about half as many as did in the 1970s. We discuss the values of a humanities education and what the downward trend means for schools and society.
- More: ‘Why Teach English’ by Adam Gopnik – The New Yorker
- More: ‘Science is Not the Enemy’ by Steven Pinker – The New Republic
- More: ‘Don’t Let Science Invade the Liberal Arts’ by Leon Wieseltier – The New Republic