Having spent most of my academic life at the University of Calgary, I often receive emails from parents justifiably concerned regarding post-secondary education for their children..Since I also occasionally commented on the many failings of the place, some correspondents have said, in effect: “OK, smart guy, maybe the U of C isn’t all that hot. But what would you do?”.Fair question. Here is my answer. It applies not just to the U of C but more generally..Several years ago, I was a member of the faculty of graduate studies scholarship committee. The graduate dean noticed I'd offered critical comments of several thesis proposals coming from the education faculty. I explained they had no scholarly merit, which made them ineligible for scholarship money. I challenged him to read out the next proposal from education and, if he could keep a straight face, I would henceforth hold my peace. He failed the challenge and cracked up..He later asked me to provide a memo on what I thought the university was all about. I argued there were three kinds of faculties. The core faculties are arts and sciences, whose member scholars are devoted to the pursuit of truth about natural and human being. U of C never had a faculty devoted to the truth about divine being..Then there are professional faculties — law, medicine, business, and engineering — that apply the insights of arts and sciences to practical affairs..Finally, there are certification faculties: social work, education, and phys-ed, none of which are connected to scholarship of any kind..The dean was not entirely happy with this classification (he was an engineer), but could not disagree with the distinctions involved..The centrality of the core faculties has implications for life outside the university. If there are any institutions in Canada tasked with the preservation of the great patrimony of Western history and civilization — namely, the pursuit of truth — they're found in the arts and science faculties. Our task is to pass that patrimony on to the next generation..That’s all well and good, but also very abstract, which raises a second point invariably made by critics: what really is this precious patrimony, anyhow? Colonialism? Racism? Imperialism? So where did the pursuit of truth go?.Granted, like every other civilization in the history of humanity, the actions of ours, too, inspire divisions. But so what? Why should anyone begin with the expectation of agreement? Disagreement is the starting point for all discussion. If we all agreed all the time, we would have nothing to talk about. But, critics respond, disagreement might induce “discomfort.”.Again: so what? Why should we expect everyone to be comfortable all the time?.To be blunt: disagreement, with or without discomfort, is the starting point for discussion, and discussion of the rational, actual, concrete way that the pursuit of truth is conducted. For those who hold the patrimony of Western civilization is colonialism and so forth, there is nothing to discuss. How did that come about?.The answer is, in fact, quite simple. First came the replacement of the core faculties with peripheral ones. Specifically, what we now call STEM fields —Science, Technology, Engineering, and (applied) Mathematics — have displaced the liberal arts or the humanities as being central to undergraduate education..The humanities — literature, history, philosophy, classics, linguistics, and foreign languages — are called that because they involve the study of what makes human beings human. They seek the truth about human being, which remains the genuine patrimony universities are charged with guarding and transmitting..That the importance of the humanities in the university has declined is beyond dispute. The data are unequivocal. When I was an undergraduate at UBC during the 1960s, about 17% of us received humanities (arts) degrees; today it is around 6%. In 2012, 20% of Harvard undergraduates (always a North American bellwether) planned to pursue a humanities major. A decade later it was 7%..A second trend is even more familiar: the rise of political correctness and wokeism. That's what sustains the classification of Western civilization with colonialism etc. Moreover, this ideological fantasy is operationalized and enforced by a whole new bureaucracy, called at the U of C the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), directed by well compensated vice provost..It is no exaggeration to say senior administrators across North America now consider DEI to be a core mission of the university. It almost goes without saying the diversity DEI bureaucrats enforce has nothing to do with diversity of opinion. The assumptions, let alone the wisdom, of DEI is never discussed by those charged with applying their ever-expanding remit..The result is well known to all of us who still harbour concerns about the pursuit of truth. Increasingly voluble cohorts of intolerant, illiberal, hyper-progressive students who never seriously questioned anything stand in need of deprogramming before they're capable of learning. They are enthusiastically supported by woke administrators who are likewise incapable of discussing anything. Both groups fear being uncomfortable..These two trends, the rise of STEM-based training and the domination of ideological wokeism, are intimately connected. The last liberally educated president we had was Norm Wagner (1978-88), which means his successors have had to confront the great emptiness at the centre of professional — and STEM — training: an indifference to, owing to ignorance of, the Western intellectual, cultural, and spiritual patrimony that informs our civilization, found in the humanities..To put it simply: ignorance of the humanities inspired STEM-trained administrators to embrace the ersatz humanism of wokeism and DEI. Unfortunately, the endpoint of DEI is the antithesis of what our humanity requires. In the pursuit of wokeness, more than half North American universities, including the U of C, adopted programs to enable students to “report anonymously,” a euphemism for spying and informing on anyone who, for example, violates orthodoxy on pronoun use, transgenderism, and other so-called microaggressions that make them uncomfortable. A Wall Street Journal editorial compared the practice to the of the East German Stasi..To make matters worse, in addition to administration-led changes in the core mission of the university, far too often humanities scholars have agreed to the hegemony of STEM-advocates and, increasingly, to those who see the mission of the university to be the vanguard of wokeness. The fact is, however, STEM triumphalism is one side of a problem of which wokeness and DEI is the other..So, for concerned parents, here is my modest proposal: advise your kids to look at classical studies as the centre of their undergraduate education. That means the study of dead languages, myths, and arguments from long-gone societies and civilizations, especially the Greeks. Let them start with Homer (eighth century BC) and end with Polybius (d. 146 BC) or add Latin and read St. Augustine (d. 430 AD). You will not have wasted your time..This possibility is not a reflection of antiquarian romanticism. No less an authority than Werner Heisenberg, 1932 Nobel Laureate, attributed his insights in modern nuclear physics, including his famous “uncertainty principle,” to his knowledge of Greek “natural philosophy.” Heisenberg read his Plato in Greek, which is to say he read Plato, not somebody else’s version of Plato. This matters because learning a new language, however imperfectly, opens a brand-new world about which students previously knew nothing..Students get no exposure to novelty by way of the usual STEM courses — except for pure mathematics. For students whose only options are STEM versus woke studies, by all means study engineering or medicine..But do not foreclose other possibilities. Consider going to a technical school and also leaning something useful such as how to repair small engines.
Having spent most of my academic life at the University of Calgary, I often receive emails from parents justifiably concerned regarding post-secondary education for their children..Since I also occasionally commented on the many failings of the place, some correspondents have said, in effect: “OK, smart guy, maybe the U of C isn’t all that hot. But what would you do?”.Fair question. Here is my answer. It applies not just to the U of C but more generally..Several years ago, I was a member of the faculty of graduate studies scholarship committee. The graduate dean noticed I'd offered critical comments of several thesis proposals coming from the education faculty. I explained they had no scholarly merit, which made them ineligible for scholarship money. I challenged him to read out the next proposal from education and, if he could keep a straight face, I would henceforth hold my peace. He failed the challenge and cracked up..He later asked me to provide a memo on what I thought the university was all about. I argued there were three kinds of faculties. The core faculties are arts and sciences, whose member scholars are devoted to the pursuit of truth about natural and human being. U of C never had a faculty devoted to the truth about divine being..Then there are professional faculties — law, medicine, business, and engineering — that apply the insights of arts and sciences to practical affairs..Finally, there are certification faculties: social work, education, and phys-ed, none of which are connected to scholarship of any kind..The dean was not entirely happy with this classification (he was an engineer), but could not disagree with the distinctions involved..The centrality of the core faculties has implications for life outside the university. If there are any institutions in Canada tasked with the preservation of the great patrimony of Western history and civilization — namely, the pursuit of truth — they're found in the arts and science faculties. Our task is to pass that patrimony on to the next generation..That’s all well and good, but also very abstract, which raises a second point invariably made by critics: what really is this precious patrimony, anyhow? Colonialism? Racism? Imperialism? So where did the pursuit of truth go?.Granted, like every other civilization in the history of humanity, the actions of ours, too, inspire divisions. But so what? Why should anyone begin with the expectation of agreement? Disagreement is the starting point for all discussion. If we all agreed all the time, we would have nothing to talk about. But, critics respond, disagreement might induce “discomfort.”.Again: so what? Why should we expect everyone to be comfortable all the time?.To be blunt: disagreement, with or without discomfort, is the starting point for discussion, and discussion of the rational, actual, concrete way that the pursuit of truth is conducted. For those who hold the patrimony of Western civilization is colonialism and so forth, there is nothing to discuss. How did that come about?.The answer is, in fact, quite simple. First came the replacement of the core faculties with peripheral ones. Specifically, what we now call STEM fields —Science, Technology, Engineering, and (applied) Mathematics — have displaced the liberal arts or the humanities as being central to undergraduate education..The humanities — literature, history, philosophy, classics, linguistics, and foreign languages — are called that because they involve the study of what makes human beings human. They seek the truth about human being, which remains the genuine patrimony universities are charged with guarding and transmitting..That the importance of the humanities in the university has declined is beyond dispute. The data are unequivocal. When I was an undergraduate at UBC during the 1960s, about 17% of us received humanities (arts) degrees; today it is around 6%. In 2012, 20% of Harvard undergraduates (always a North American bellwether) planned to pursue a humanities major. A decade later it was 7%..A second trend is even more familiar: the rise of political correctness and wokeism. That's what sustains the classification of Western civilization with colonialism etc. Moreover, this ideological fantasy is operationalized and enforced by a whole new bureaucracy, called at the U of C the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), directed by well compensated vice provost..It is no exaggeration to say senior administrators across North America now consider DEI to be a core mission of the university. It almost goes without saying the diversity DEI bureaucrats enforce has nothing to do with diversity of opinion. The assumptions, let alone the wisdom, of DEI is never discussed by those charged with applying their ever-expanding remit..The result is well known to all of us who still harbour concerns about the pursuit of truth. Increasingly voluble cohorts of intolerant, illiberal, hyper-progressive students who never seriously questioned anything stand in need of deprogramming before they're capable of learning. They are enthusiastically supported by woke administrators who are likewise incapable of discussing anything. Both groups fear being uncomfortable..These two trends, the rise of STEM-based training and the domination of ideological wokeism, are intimately connected. The last liberally educated president we had was Norm Wagner (1978-88), which means his successors have had to confront the great emptiness at the centre of professional — and STEM — training: an indifference to, owing to ignorance of, the Western intellectual, cultural, and spiritual patrimony that informs our civilization, found in the humanities..To put it simply: ignorance of the humanities inspired STEM-trained administrators to embrace the ersatz humanism of wokeism and DEI. Unfortunately, the endpoint of DEI is the antithesis of what our humanity requires. In the pursuit of wokeness, more than half North American universities, including the U of C, adopted programs to enable students to “report anonymously,” a euphemism for spying and informing on anyone who, for example, violates orthodoxy on pronoun use, transgenderism, and other so-called microaggressions that make them uncomfortable. A Wall Street Journal editorial compared the practice to the of the East German Stasi..To make matters worse, in addition to administration-led changes in the core mission of the university, far too often humanities scholars have agreed to the hegemony of STEM-advocates and, increasingly, to those who see the mission of the university to be the vanguard of wokeness. The fact is, however, STEM triumphalism is one side of a problem of which wokeness and DEI is the other..So, for concerned parents, here is my modest proposal: advise your kids to look at classical studies as the centre of their undergraduate education. That means the study of dead languages, myths, and arguments from long-gone societies and civilizations, especially the Greeks. Let them start with Homer (eighth century BC) and end with Polybius (d. 146 BC) or add Latin and read St. Augustine (d. 430 AD). You will not have wasted your time..This possibility is not a reflection of antiquarian romanticism. No less an authority than Werner Heisenberg, 1932 Nobel Laureate, attributed his insights in modern nuclear physics, including his famous “uncertainty principle,” to his knowledge of Greek “natural philosophy.” Heisenberg read his Plato in Greek, which is to say he read Plato, not somebody else’s version of Plato. This matters because learning a new language, however imperfectly, opens a brand-new world about which students previously knew nothing..Students get no exposure to novelty by way of the usual STEM courses — except for pure mathematics. For students whose only options are STEM versus woke studies, by all means study engineering or medicine..But do not foreclose other possibilities. Consider going to a technical school and also leaning something useful such as how to repair small engines.
