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In reply to the discussion: WTF ...10 [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)does someone really need "Understanding Japanese haiku" to handle a position in computer tech work?
Yes. Someone really does need "Understanding Japanese haiku" or some other similar liberal arts courses to handle a position, any kind of a position that involves responsibility, ethics, morality and even positions in computer tech may involve those qualities, especially if the computer tech person becomes a manager and has to deal with people.
College is the time in your life to learn not just a practical skill that you can use to make money but also what it is to be a person. What it is to be a person in a culture other than your own. What it is to be a person in a historical period other than your own. What it is to think and dream.
Einstein was a violinist. So was his successor at Princeton. Many of the early computer programmers were musicians. We need to learn to think and write beyond the level we reached as seniors in high school.
So, yes someone really needs "Understanding Japanese haiku" or some other liberal arts courses if that person wants to claim to be half-educated.
Sorry. But the question really irks me. In other countries, many Americans are viewed as ignorant, arrogant slobs. It's because we don't teach our children to value other cultures or the basics in liberal arts.
It is oh, so easy to construct computers that can control drones that kill, so hard to understand how to conduct yourself in the world so that you don't get into life or death conflicts. Liberal arts is the study of human thinking and human relations. Your son would not be an educated person without it. If he is bored, too bad. I find chemistry boring, but I still took the courses and am happy about it now. So happens one of my jobs involved understanding chemistry. You cannot judge at the age of 22 what will be important in your live at the age of 59.