From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today, an opinion piece written by a current UW-Madison junior, Kelsey Mullane, directly relevant to our "academic capitalism" discussions today:
This perception of degree value is the product of increased criticism of the humanities following the economic recession. This criticism uses numeric data, such as starting salaries and post-graduation unemployment rates, to support the erroneous notion that the humanities teach impractical skills that hold little or no value in the current job market, thereby discouraging their study.
As a student majoring in art history, one of the most ridiculed disciplines within the humanities, I confront this skewed perception of degree value on a regular basis. When I introduce myself as an art history major, most of my peers make distasteful jokes about how I will "never have a job" or assume that I seek to become a trophy wife.
At first, I took offense at those types of comments. However, I now realize that those who question the worth of my degree do not realize that art history programs provide students with a wide range of skills that appeal to potential employers.
Read the rest of the article
here and tell us what you think!
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