Does anybody still major in the humanities?
At every university, big and small, fewer and fewer students are studying English, History, Philosophy, Art History, French literature or Anthropology. The numbers at the Univ. of Texas, Austin are now down to one-quarter of 1%. Other major universities report similar declines, partly because students are more job-oriented, partly because the majors themselves have been politicized by the faculty. The result is more than a loss for higher education. It is a loss for our democracy and the ideals we should strive to meet. We need to pass along “the best that has been thought and said” to the next generation.
