Support for LSU

[Viggen]

LSU to cut programs

LSU is expected by Monday night ot propose eliminating several academic degree programs and institutes ranging from the School of Library and Information Sciences to bachelor

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

well, this ironic. I'm a Latin major without any interest in teaching because honestly, it's really damn hard to become a specialized teacher nowadays;

[Ursus]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

[barca]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

 

The trend toward eliminating Latin began with Ben Franklin whose school emphasized the teaching of English rather than Latin, but he certainly was not in favor of eliminating the Classics in English translation. However with the decline in the learning of Latin, there has also been a large decline in the reading of Latin authors in translation.

 

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

 

The trend toward eliminating Latin began with Ben Franklin whose school emphasized the teaching of English rather than Latin, but he certainly was not in favor of eliminating the Classics in English translation. However with the decline in the learning of Latin, there has also been a large decline in the reading of Latin authors in translation.

 

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

 

Eh, Ben Franklin, shoulda figured it would be that crazy drunk.

 

I hear all these stories about a revival in learning the Classics but I have yet to witness any of that at my university or any public school. In fact, quite sure the recession killed any impetus the Classics revival has. Even then, majoring in classics mean craps if you can't translate at least a few of the original texts because if you intend to write a large essay or thesis, you're expected to be able to translate primary sources.

[Ursus]

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

 

Personally, I think it should be taught in high school, at least to the "smart" kids who are most likely to cherish its appeal to heritage.

 

However, economically I can understand why any struggling institution of higher education would have it first on its chopping block.

[Brucecarson]

I can understand the decline in the teaching of Latin, but if you want to have a serious classics department you need to have a Latin department as well. There will always be some call for it.

 

Personally, I think as a society we would be better off if people spent more time studying the classics (in translation in most cases) and less on post modern literature. In high school I was made to read "a small place," "catcher in the rye" and the like. What do those works teach us? The thoughts of the last generation of societal rebels and non-conformist thinkers. I basically learned how self important my teachers believed their baby-boom generation to be. They firmly believe the thoughts they came up with outweighed in significance all previous human thinking from the last three thousand years.

 

On the upside, I did grow quite disgusted with post modernist, feminist and politically liberal literature (nothing against feminism and liberalism but I got the point after the first teacher drilled it into me). So today I'd much sooner read one of the classics than any of the supposed cutting edge literature of today. Cutting edge literature is boring when you're forced to read it.

 

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

 

Maybe the above phrase is the unconscious reason for teaching us literature written by the last generation of rebels. The baby-boomers claim they're teaching us about their rebellions so that we don't slide into the societal patterns of the past. I think they do it to keep us from following their example, they don't want a rebellious young generation. They want to entrench their power structures and way of thinking... a bit of a conspiracy theory on my part.

 

Wow... this is the first time I've ever really enunciated my feelings about literature as it's taught in schools today. I've been thinking this for years but never put my thoughts together like this.

[Gaius Valerius]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

 

 

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

 

Although I am am an infrequent poster on this Forum, the above statement has moved me to reply. I am a Professor in the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago, going on some 30 years service. The University in experiencing severe financial hardships and, in its desire to shore up its situation is moving to eliminate the Classics Department over in the College of Liberal Arts. More so, due to a "hiring freeze", we do not have one faculty member in our vaunted History Department with a specialty in ancient history. I have for a long time bemoaned the lack of historical knowledge of my business students. "Plato? Sure, isn't that the fun doughy stuff we got to play with as kids? Aristotle? Oh yes, that's that Greek restaurant in "Greek Town." It seems more and more to me that higher education is becoming more of a glorified trade school than an institution that helps train the mind and spirit of our young adults. We are our heritage. To pretend that history plays no role in who we are, and perhaps more importantly, who and what we will become, is a fool's position. If the current trend continues, and I believe that it will, what it means to be "an educated person" will be in serious doubt. I could go on, but I have have taken enough of all of your time.

[Ursus]

I think that sort of broad, liberal arts education should be conducted at the secondary level, in fact allowing tertiary education to be more specialized. From what I understand this is what most industrialized countries outside the US do in practice, already.

 

If American high schools were more focused on that sort of cultural and intellectual heritage -rather than sports and marching bands and "social awareness" training - we could make this entire argument irrelevant. My two cents.

[barca]

Personally, I think as a society we would be better off if people spent more time studying the classics (in translation in most cases) and less on post modern literature. In high school I was made to read "a small place," "catcher in the rye" and the like. What do those works teach us? The thoughts of the last generation of societal rebels and non-conformist thinkers. I basically learned how self important my teachers believed their baby-boom generation to be. They firmly believe the thoughts they came up with outweighed in significance all previous human thinking from the last three thousand years.

 

Here is a link that i picked up on the Historynet forum:

 

http://www.nas.org/documents/Beach_Books.pdf

 

It discusses summer reading lists for college students. The so-called classics make up only a very small percentage of the list, and none of them are true classics in the sense of ancient Greece and Rome.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

 

 

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

 

Although I am am an infrequent poster on this Forum, the above statement has moved me to reply. I am a Professor in the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago, going on some 30 years service. The University in experiencing severe financial hardships and, in its desire to shore up its situation is moving to eliminate the Classics Department over in the College of Liberal Arts. More so, due to a "hiring freeze", we do not have one faculty member in our vaunted History Department with a specialty in ancient history. I have for a long time bemoaned the lack of historical knowledge of my business students. "Plato? Sure, isn't that the fun doughy stuff we got to play with as kids? Aristotle? Oh yes, that's that Greek restaurant in "Greek Town." It seems more and more to me that higher education is becoming more of a glorified trade school than an institution that helps train the mind and spirit of our young adults. We are our heritage. To pretend that history plays no role in who we are, and perhaps more importantly, who and what we will become, is a fool's position. If the current trend continues, and I believe that it will, what it means to be "an educated person" will be in serious doubt. I could go on, but I have have taken enough of all of your time.

To be honest, the business students at my University double major in Economics and whatever business major, leaving them not much room that they would consider a Classics class rather than taking some easy credit classes. The closest they'll get to classics is in PLSC 100 class.

[Gaius Valerius]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

 

 

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

 

Although I am am an infrequent poster on this Forum, the above statement has moved me to reply. I am a Professor in the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago, going on some 30 years service. The University in experiencing severe financial hardships and, in its desire to shore up its situation is moving to eliminate the Classics Department over in the College of Liberal Arts. More so, due to a "hiring freeze", we do not have one faculty member in our vaunted History Department with a specialty in ancient history. I have for a long time bemoaned the lack of historical knowledge of my business students. "Plato? Sure, isn't that the fun doughy stuff we got to play with as kids? Aristotle? Oh yes, that's that Greek restaurant in "Greek Town." It seems more and more to me that higher education is becoming more of a glorified trade school than an institution that helps train the mind and spirit of our young adults. We are our heritage. To pretend that history plays no role in who we are, and perhaps more importantly, who and what we will become, is a fool's position. If the current trend continues, and I believe that it will, what it means to be "an educated person" will be in serious doubt. I could go on, but I have have taken enough of all of your time.

To be honest, the business students at my University double major in Economics and whatever business major, leaving them not much room that they would consider a Classics class rather than taking some easy credit classes. The closest they'll get to classics is in PLSC 100 class.

 

Hi Flavius...Looking at your profile. we seem to have a lot in common, and that is besides being from Chicago. I too am a graduate of Loyola Academy. Just a few years or so before you... . Always nice to meet a fellow alum. As to school, it is correct to say that the required curriculum in the business college leaves very little room for "free electives" which would in all likelihood be taken in business related courses. However, every University has what we call "gen ed" or general education requirements that all students must take in order to graduate, regardless of their college. Here is where I believe we could really do some good and broaden the background of our up and coming business students. I would very much enjoy continuing this discussion with you. What school are you at, if you want to say?

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

 

 

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

 

Although I am am an infrequent poster on this Forum, the above statement has moved me to reply. I am a Professor in the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago, going on some 30 years service. The University in experiencing severe financial hardships and, in its desire to shore up its situation is moving to eliminate the Classics Department over in the College of Liberal Arts. More so, due to a "hiring freeze", we do not have one faculty member in our vaunted History Department with a specialty in ancient history. I have for a long time bemoaned the lack of historical knowledge of my business students. "Plato? Sure, isn't that the fun doughy stuff we got to play with as kids? Aristotle? Oh yes, that's that Greek restaurant in "Greek Town." It seems more and more to me that higher education is becoming more of a glorified trade school than an institution that helps train the mind and spirit of our young adults. We are our heritage. To pretend that history plays no role in who we are, and perhaps more importantly, who and what we will become, is a fool's position. If the current trend continues, and I believe that it will, what it means to be "an educated person" will be in serious doubt. I could go on, but I have have taken enough of all of your time.

To be honest, the business students at my University double major in Economics and whatever business major, leaving them not much room that they would consider a Classics class rather than taking some easy credit classes. The closest they'll get to classics is in PLSC 100 class.

 

Hi Flavius...Looking at your profile. we seem to have a lot in common, and that is besides being from Chicago. I too am a graduate of Loyola Academy. Just a few years or so before you... . Always nice to meet a fellow alum. As to school, it is correct to say that the required curriculum in the business college leaves very little room for "free electives" which would in all likelihood be taken in business related courses. However, every University has what we call "gen ed" or general education requirements that all students must take in order to graduate, regardless of their college. Here is where I believe we could really do some good and broaden the background of our up and coming business students. I would very much enjoy continuing this discussion with you. What school are you at, if you want to say?

 

I am at Loyola University, I am majoring in Latin and Political Science.

[Gaius Valerius]

As much as I am a Romanophile, the only "Latin" worth speaking these days from a business standpoint is the type spoken by Hispanic immigrants.

 

 

Although I agree that Latin has little practical value to the average person, it is a very important part of the Western Heritage, and it should not be eliminated from any institution priding itself on first rate academics.

 

Although I am am an infrequent poster on this Forum, the above statement has moved me to reply. I am a Professor in the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago, going on some 30 years service. The University in experiencing severe financial hardships and, in its desire to shore up its situation is moving to eliminate the Classics Department over in the College of Liberal Arts. More so, due to a "hiring freeze", we do not have one faculty member in our vaunted History Department with a specialty in ancient history. I have for a long time bemoaned the lack of historical knowledge of my business students. "Plato? Sure, isn't that the fun doughy stuff we got to play with as kids? Aristotle? Oh yes, that's that Greek restaurant in "Greek Town." It seems more and more to me that higher education is becoming more of a glorified trade school than an institution that helps train the mind and spirit of our young adults. We are our heritage. To pretend that history plays no role in who we are, and perhaps more importantly, who and what we will become, is a fool's position. If the current trend continues, and I believe that it will, what it means to be "an educated person" will be in serious doubt. I could go on, but I have have taken enough of all of your time.

To be honest, the business students at my University double major in Economics and whatever business major, leaving them not much room that they would consider a Classics class rather than taking some easy credit classes. The closest they'll get to classics is in PLSC 100 class.

 

Hi Flavius...Looking at your profile. we seem to have a lot in common, and that is besides being from Chicago. I too am a graduate of Loyola Academy. Just a few years or so before you... . Always nice to meet a fellow alum. As to school, it is correct to say that the required curriculum in the business college leaves very little room for "free electives" which would in all likelihood be taken in business related courses. However, every University has what we call "gen ed" or general education requirements that all students must take in order to graduate, regardless of their college. Here is where I believe we could really do some good and broaden the background of our up and coming business students. I would very much enjoy continuing this discussion with you. What school are you at, if you want to say?

 

I am at Loyola University, I am majoring in Latin and Political Science.

 

That's an excellent combination. I wish you great success going forward.