Thanks for responding to my post…always good to know somebody reads these things! I think we’re in agreement about there being some importance to making sure people learn the skills needed to become gainfully employed.

But you asked me to explain what I meant when I mentioned valuing “education as an end in itself.” I initially thought that was a shorthand way of pointing to what you meant when you talked about studying the humanities, but looking back I see we’re probably talking about two different propositions:

(i) Studying the humanities and natural sciences makes an individual more well-rounded and gives us a better idea of how we ought to live.

(ii) Studying the humanities and natural sciences is an end in itself, i.e., there’s just something inherently valuable in knowing about various subjects, apart from the consequences that knowledge might cause.

It seems in your post you were thinking of (i) and I was talking about (ii). Regardless, both are good reasons (at least to me) to place a high value on *education,* not future-job training.

–TMG
http://themoralguy.blogspot.com

The Education Department is controlled by advisers who have insufficient regard for the liberal arts and instead are intent on judging colleges largely by their ability to provide economically measurable talent for industry, a recently departed top official told The Chronicle.

Ms. Jones has left the Department in part for this reason.

You can read the article, Liberal Arts Undervalued by Education Department, Official Says After Quitting at the Chronicle’s website, http://www.chronicle.com.

Regarding your second point, I’m not clear about what you mean when you say “education as an end in itself.” Can you unpack that a bit?

Finally, given the high level of government corruption by corporations, I’m not at all surprised that there would be politicians who would see benefits in a populace so focused on their jobs that they don’t have time to think about politics.

Thanks again.
Karin

1. We should be careful not to over-emphasize studying the humanities or natural sciences in place of job training: the fact is, people *do* need skills to support themselves financially, and the more job training a person has, the better off she is.

2. I think your last comment–that “that’s how politicians like it”–isn’t very fair. Lots of people who have and do hold political office care deeply about education as an end in itself. Besides which, I’m not sure I even see a motivation for why politicians would be glad people only care about learning to get a better job.

And again, please feel free to comment back at me!

–TMG