⭐️🤦♀️when I graduated with my English undergrad degree in 2002, I had no idea what to do with myself. You are forced to find your direction in life. No clear path forward that’s for sure 😂
Very much looking forward to your coming essays. I was an art major though that qualified me to do little that would pay the rent.
I think what you are saying is very important so I shared it to face book. I wasn’t successful in school and didn’t learn why until my mid fifties. I have ADHD but there was no such understanding of this in the 1960’s. I did learn though but mostly from a love of reading.
Word nerd still.
Literature is as vital to our world (if not more)as any other human endeavor. It is the coalescence of the heart and the history of the ages. I call it wordsmithing and it can cut as deeply as any sword.
Thanks, John! This is the most satisfying title I've read in years, ever since schools started pushing the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum. The later addition of an "A" to make the acronym spell STEAM did little to assuage my anger that arts and humanities were being relegated to that insulting position of being "the icing on the cake," that little something extra.
Hmmm, AI may be able to solve equations and spit out algorithms, but it cannot write imaginatively or even lucidly, and it certainly can't generate original art!
John, I love how you bring ancient philophers, writers and teachings (well, and newer stuff too) into your essays and, of course, your classroom in such a fun way!! But forget the fun, the fact that all along, your students and readers are subconsciously being taught/forced :) to SEE the interconnection of the "old" with the world we live in BECAUSE of the way you present material is admirable! JENNY and JOHN will save the world one day at a time! Ha!
Thanks, Patricia! You inspired the whole classroom journal thing, so you’re doing some world saving as well, and from what I’ve heard, you did plenty in your own classroom.
Frequently I find myself cringing at the term "STEM education." I have nothing against science, technology, engineering, or math. But I despise STEM. It omits the one discipline that would hold the rest together, that would hold the world together: Humanities. As an author, I found this post almost poignant. Literature, to me, is how we can see into the most intimate parts of another's life without invading anyone's privacy, because that other is fictional. We can explore our own lives in comparison. And this comparison is, I truly believe, the best way we have of understanding ourselves. If I were the only thing in the universe, I would not know what I was. It's only by comparing myself to other things and other people that I come to know myself. And literature is crucial to this process, whether I'm writing or reading. Thank you for an excellent post.
John, it’s been decades since I’ve gotten a degree, but I wish I could take your course - so, I’ve done the next best thing, subscribing here :-) I agree about the need to keep resisting the rhetoric about a “skills-based” education and to keep articulating why the humanities matter - i’m in a similar boat (life raft??), teaching in a journalism program, constantly grappling with the temptation of that “pack of lies” - and what exactly reporters are imitating - I do appreciate your nod to Simone de Beauvoir in that regard.
Thanks, Martha! Glad to have you here. Yes, both of our fields are under siege. The best we can do is fight the good fight. More coming on Simone de Beauvoir in a couple of weeks!
I appreciate this essay. But, John, I'm sure that you know many insufferable people who are English professors. I spent many years preaching a similar gospel, but I've come to doubt it, despite my abiding love for and devotion to the humanities. Literature can indeed be a way to learn empathy, and to internalize values that are more lasting than corporate training or skills acquisition. But literature can also be an insular, jealous, and vengeful world. It's complicated, wouldn't you say?
Yes, certainly, there are many insufferable English professors--which I would extend to academia in general. (I’m lucky to work in a functional, collegial department.) I almost left the field after being treated very badly by a faculty member when I was a graduate student. This piece was something of a manifesto, so I didn’t get into the ambivalence of it all. I suppose that I’m speaking to that potential that you refer to, and I see it in many of my students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, even at my middle-tier university. And it’s no easy choice to become an English major, especially if one’s goal is wealth. But I’m trying to convince my students that there is value in the work that they are doing, especially when they encounter doubt from their friends and family. So yes, it is complicated, and I don’t want to be a Pollyanna here, but I need to maintain my optimism and enthusiasm for what I do for my students’ sake--and for my own.
English major is good if the canon of English literature as been explored “canonically”. But studied in the mode of the post modernists, it is just a noxious heap of ordure.
Read John Halbrooks! Poetry and memoir and fiction and the desire to invent lie at the center of the human heart.
William Carlos Williams said,
My heart rouses
thinking to bring you news
of something
that concerns you
and concerns many men. Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
—from Asphodel, that Greeny Flower
English major here 🙋♀️
🥳 And it shows! (That’s a compliment.)
⭐️🤦♀️when I graduated with my English undergrad degree in 2002, I had no idea what to do with myself. You are forced to find your direction in life. No clear path forward that’s for sure 😂
Yes, we need to do a better job of showing how our field makes us competent in all sorts of contexts. We are not the best at self-promotion.
Very much looking forward to your coming essays. I was an art major though that qualified me to do little that would pay the rent.
I think what you are saying is very important so I shared it to face book. I wasn’t successful in school and didn’t learn why until my mid fifties. I have ADHD but there was no such understanding of this in the 1960’s. I did learn though but mostly from a love of reading.
Word nerd still.
Literature is as vital to our world (if not more)as any other human endeavor. It is the coalescence of the heart and the history of the ages. I call it wordsmithing and it can cut as deeply as any sword.
Thanks! I’m happy that this spoke to you.
Thanks, John! This is the most satisfying title I've read in years, ever since schools started pushing the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum. The later addition of an "A" to make the acronym spell STEAM did little to assuage my anger that arts and humanities were being relegated to that insulting position of being "the icing on the cake," that little something extra.
Hmmm, AI may be able to solve equations and spit out algorithms, but it cannot write imaginatively or even lucidly, and it certainly can't generate original art!
John, I love how you bring ancient philophers, writers and teachings (well, and newer stuff too) into your essays and, of course, your classroom in such a fun way!! But forget the fun, the fact that all along, your students and readers are subconsciously being taught/forced :) to SEE the interconnection of the "old" with the world we live in BECAUSE of the way you present material is admirable! JENNY and JOHN will save the world one day at a time! Ha!
Thanks, Patricia! You inspired the whole classroom journal thing, so you’re doing some world saving as well, and from what I’ve heard, you did plenty in your own classroom.
Excellent, thought provoking. I wrote about a similar thing, you may want to check out.
Looking forward to reading more of your "stacks."
https://open.substack.com/pub/arniesabatelli/p/how-to-fix-english-68a?r=1nwa2p&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thank you! I’ll check it out!
Frequently I find myself cringing at the term "STEM education." I have nothing against science, technology, engineering, or math. But I despise STEM. It omits the one discipline that would hold the rest together, that would hold the world together: Humanities. As an author, I found this post almost poignant. Literature, to me, is how we can see into the most intimate parts of another's life without invading anyone's privacy, because that other is fictional. We can explore our own lives in comparison. And this comparison is, I truly believe, the best way we have of understanding ourselves. If I were the only thing in the universe, I would not know what I was. It's only by comparing myself to other things and other people that I come to know myself. And literature is crucial to this process, whether I'm writing or reading. Thank you for an excellent post.
Thank you! You are spot on. Without the humanities, we lose the human.
This late in life to get a Humanities Major girl
says a triple scoop of a thank you!
Feels so fine to read what I think and feel about Humanities education.
(and yes football was always well-funded. sigh)
I’m glad you enjoyed it! There are a lot of us out there: we just need to advocate for our field(s) more effectively.
John, it’s been decades since I’ve gotten a degree, but I wish I could take your course - so, I’ve done the next best thing, subscribing here :-) I agree about the need to keep resisting the rhetoric about a “skills-based” education and to keep articulating why the humanities matter - i’m in a similar boat (life raft??), teaching in a journalism program, constantly grappling with the temptation of that “pack of lies” - and what exactly reporters are imitating - I do appreciate your nod to Simone de Beauvoir in that regard.
Thanks, Martha! Glad to have you here. Yes, both of our fields are under siege. The best we can do is fight the good fight. More coming on Simone de Beauvoir in a couple of weeks!
It will be fabulous for me to revisit The Second Sex et al. I’m staying tuned 😉
I appreciate this essay. But, John, I'm sure that you know many insufferable people who are English professors. I spent many years preaching a similar gospel, but I've come to doubt it, despite my abiding love for and devotion to the humanities. Literature can indeed be a way to learn empathy, and to internalize values that are more lasting than corporate training or skills acquisition. But literature can also be an insular, jealous, and vengeful world. It's complicated, wouldn't you say?
Yes, certainly, there are many insufferable English professors--which I would extend to academia in general. (I’m lucky to work in a functional, collegial department.) I almost left the field after being treated very badly by a faculty member when I was a graduate student. This piece was something of a manifesto, so I didn’t get into the ambivalence of it all. I suppose that I’m speaking to that potential that you refer to, and I see it in many of my students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, even at my middle-tier university. And it’s no easy choice to become an English major, especially if one’s goal is wealth. But I’m trying to convince my students that there is value in the work that they are doing, especially when they encounter doubt from their friends and family. So yes, it is complicated, and I don’t want to be a Pollyanna here, but I need to maintain my optimism and enthusiasm for what I do for my students’ sake--and for my own.
I certainly understand and respect the need for optimism while you're still working with students.
English major is good if the canon of English literature as been explored “canonically”. But studied in the mode of the post modernists, it is just a noxious heap of ordure.