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3-21-2018 Thirty years after Allan Bloom’s classic the closing of the American mind: The liberal arts and what does it mean to be college educated today Robert W. Hill Nova Southeastern University, [email protected]

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NSUWorks Citation Hill, Robert W., "Thirty years after Allan Bloom’s classic the closing of the American mind: The liberal arts and what does it mean to be college educated today" (2018). Fischler College of Education: Faculty Articles. 259. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/fse_facarticles/259

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TEACHING AND LEARNING Thirty Years After Allan Bloom’s Classic The Closing of the American Mind: The Liberal Arts and What It Means to be College Educated in 2018 ROBERT W. HILL PROFESSOR EMERITUS, NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY AND HIGHER EDUCATION CONSULTANT, LEADERSHIP & PLANNING SPECIALISTS

It has been thirty years since Allan Bloom wrote the if he would be as pessimistic now as he was then about controversial 1987 runaway bestseller The Closing of the plight of the current undergraduate student. Certainly, the American Mind: How Higher Education has Failed he would be critical of the growing and disturbing trend of Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s vulgarity and anti-intellectualism that permeates American Students. The seasoned professor of philosophy and political society. science at the University of Chicago and defender of the “great books” curriculum penned what would become one What would Bloom make of recent developments such as of the major critiques of contemporary higher education. the disappearance of many liberal arts colleges by either His trenchant analysis provided a traditional view of what it closings or changing the academic mission to add graduate meant to be an educated person and it became somewhat or professional degree programs? Liberal arts colleges divisive in the academy and a catalyst in the culture wars. (schools that emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields His iconic book was written during the height of the MTV- of study) once numbered over 200. What would Bloom think watching generation, but long before the disruptive and of watering down the long-established general education distracting technological cell phone era and age of social requirements; the discontinuance of many liberal arts majors; media competing for students’ attention. Bloom died just ranking colleges based on the starting salaries of their five years later in 1992, long before the age of political graduates; or conservative governors (FL, TX, & WI) wanting correctness, trigger warnings, microaggressions on campus, to charge more in tuition for liberal arts degrees than STEM and challenges to basic free speech. One could only wonder degrees at their public universities? what he would think of the state of today’s university and In the fall of 2011, Governor Rick classics was the best preparation for universities has gradually changed as Scott of Florida went further and getting them to think for themselves they have wrestled with this dichotomy counterproductively said, “We don’t about problems they would encounter of whether higher education is a need a lot more anthropologists in the later. Today the meaning of the term societal public good or an individual state. It’s a great degree if people want liberal arts has changed somewhat and private gain. to get it, but we don’t need them here.” the student body is much more diverse. It turned out that his daughter had However, there is still the same debate To put it more simplistically, do colleges received an anthropology degree from as to what college students need to now educate their students or train the College of William and Mary but learn in order to be educated and them to get jobs? For many students did not pursue an anthropology career. become civically engaged members of (and their hypervigilant parents) Even President Obama criticized liberal society. who seek a bona fide return on their arts majors in a speech made on investment, relevance in securing January 30, 2014 when he said (and The liberal arts were originally the future employment is of paramount then later walked back), “I promise you subjects or skills that in classical importance and probably the main folks can make a lot more, potentially, civilization were considered appropriate reason why business has been the with skilled manufacturing or the trades for the training of free men (hence the most popular undergraduate major for than they might with an art history term, liberal). They were an essential many years. degree.” part of the curriculum to enable a citizen to take an active part in civic Since Bloom’s landmark work, there How did the liberal arts disciplines life. By late antiquity, they numbered has been a spate of other scholarly go from once holding tremendous seven and were divided into two books defending the humanities cachet to become a punching bag for groups: the trivium (grammar, logic, and the importance of studying the politicians who continue to propagate and rhetoric) and the quadrivium liberal arts. From 2001’s Who Killed the notion that liberal arts degrees (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and Homer? The Demise of Classical cannot lead to jobs? music). They were long the linchpin to Education and the Recovery of Greek general education requirements and to Wisdom (Hanson and Heath) to 2011’s Since its inception with the original undergraduate education, albeit for a Lowering Higher Education: The Rise nine colonial colleges, the purpose mostly-homogenous elite student body. of Corporate Universities and the of American higher education has Fall of Liberal Education (Cote and been debated, along with who attends Correspondingly, a liberal education Allahar). That same year, though, college and what is studied in college. came to be described as the opposite Arum & Roksa released their seminal Landmark federal legislation such as of a vocational education and Academically Adrift: Limited Learning the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 (land expressed a belief that colleges should on College Campuses, a critical book grant colleges) and the Servicemen’s develop students’ broad intellectual on undergraduate education and the Readjustment Act of 1944 (the GI Bill capacities, and not simply train them lack of rigor. Among their alarming of Rights) were two influential drivers for specific jobs. With skyrocketing findings was that almost half of all of change. Along the way, the role of tuition and fees, there is a growing undergraduates studied showed the liberal arts in the core curriculum sense among the public that higher no measureable improvement in has been questioned going back to education is overpriced and under- knowledge after the first two years of the Yale Report of 1828 in which the delivering. It should be noted that the college. faculty staunchly defended the classical diverse American system of public curriculum and its role in educating and private higher education is still Our society seems to be moving to well-rounded students. The faculty the envy of the world and attracts the a place where the intellectualism asserted that the mental discipline most international students. However, championed by a liberal arts education students derived from studying the the very mission of colleges and is no longer treasured—or even

The EvoLLLution is an online newspaper dedicated to non-traditional higher education. It is the brainchild of Destiny Solutions, a company that enables postsecondary institutions to deliver world-class customer service, grow enrollments and capture new markets while increasing operational efficiency. valued—by American society. This Philosopher and leader of the and the American Academy of Arts and past May, comedian Bill Maher was progressive educational movement Sciences before drastically overhauling riffing on the president’s statement John Dewey said, “The most important the core curriculum in favor of a that “Nobody knew health care could attitude that can be formed is that of the practical training, career preparation be so complicated.” Mr. Maher then desire to go on learning.” All educators, approach. said of the opponent, “She knew. She no matter what level they teach, have loves complicated. She’s a reader” as a professional responsibility to foster Separate from community colleges he put air quotes around the phrase curiosity in their students so that they or vocational-technical schools which “a reader.” Are people either too lazy can go on to become lifelong learners. have a specific mission, four-year or too busy just trying to keep up with The potential for college graduates, institutions are at a crossroads. daily pressures to read for recreation regardless of major, to achieve any Perhaps the best approach for sake? professional success depends on their today’s colleges and universities to ability to become lifelong adaptive use in dealing with the two opposing Almost ten years ago, Mark Bauerlein, learners. Hence, if the new norm curricula missions would be to apply professor of English at Emory for today’s college graduates is not both philosophies in the classroom. University, expressed this same fear just frequently changing jobs, but Faculty should make practical in The Dumbest Generation: How the changing industries altogether, a highly- connections between the “real world” Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans specialized undergraduate degree and the subject matter by bridging and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t might not be the best preparation academic theory with practice. The Trust Anyone Under 30). He wrote, “the for personal and career happiness. curriculum should address questions intellectual future of the United States A broad undergraduate liberal arts of social responsibility and ethical looks dim.” He further said the youth degree emphasizes skills such as standards for behavior while also has developed a “brazen disregard communication, creative and critical exploring active civic engagement with of books and reading.” Even the U.S. thinking, information literacy, problem the local community and the world. Army had to lower its recruitment solving, and analyzing data: all Nevertheless, one can only conclude standards, and not just for physical competencies that employers value. that if Bloom was around today to see fitness. The number of “high-quality” the state of higher education in 2017, recruits—those with a high school Today’s higher education institutions he would not be too impressed and diploma and who scored in the upper have responded to the new market- he no doubt would continue to think 50th percentile on the Armed Forces’ driven student consumerism and they that higher education is failing both aptitude tests—has plunged. are actively competing for the same democracy and the students. students who now have many more Additionally, the average American options available to earn a degree. Yet, References adult does not read a book a year after higher education is very much steeped leaving school and being required to in tradition and often slow to change. Bloom, A. (1987). The closing of the do so. The Pew Research Center, Some even regard the curriculum American mind: How higher education a nonpartisan American think tank at universities as an “academic has failed democracy and consistently reports that about a quarter graveyard” because it is where impoverished the souls of today’s of American adults say they have not innovative ideas for educational reform students. New York, NY: Simon & read a book, in any format, in whole go to die as faculty often resist change. Schuster. or in part in the past year. In fact, the Education, like life, is more of a journey number of adult non-book readers has than an actual destination. Thus, steadily increased since the 1970s, policymakers and academics would be despite national K-12 initiatives aimed wise to review studies by the American at reversing the trend. Association of Colleges & Universities

The EvoLLLution is an online newspaper dedicated to non-traditional higher education. It is the brainchild of Destiny Solutions, a company that enables postsecondary institutions to deliver world-class customer service, grow enrollments and capture new markets while increasing operational efficiency.