There is an important post by Jessie Roberts at The Dish on a study of the reading lists at American universities.
Check it out. Few classics and lots of books with political themes. The political leaning is heavily left-wing - Dennis Prager has a point when he says many universities are left-wing seminaries - but I imagine that people from all points in the political spectrum will find this report to be disturbing. Click on through to the study. It deserves much discussion and debate.
An excerpt from the study:
The top two subject categories were Science and Multiculturalism/Immigration/Racism, and the top genres were memoir and biography. Some book types were notably missing from common reading assignments. Classic texts and books published before 1990 were scarce, and fiction was far outpaced by nonfiction. There were no classics of history; no biographies of, nor autobiographies, speeches, or writings by, American political leaders; no works by ancient philosophers; no works of the Enlightenment; no classical works of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Confucian thought; and no scientific classics.
The top two subject categories were Science and Multiculturalism/Immigration/Racism, and the top genres were memoir and biography. Some book types were notably missing from common reading assignments. Classic texts and books published before 1990 were scarce, and fiction was far outpaced by nonfiction. There were no classics of history; no biographies of, nor autobiographies, speeches, or writings by, American political leaders; no works by ancient philosophers; no works of the Enlightenment; no classical works of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Confucian thought; and no scientific classics.
2 comments:
I find it disturbing on several levels. Speaking only for myself, it was only when I started reading some of the classic works of fiction and nonfiction did I start to understand how the world worked.
Students who are fed most modern works don't even realize what they are consuming is light weight stuff, and the lessons they are drawing from it will wither away very quickly. Without a mind able to see past the immediate, you are confined to be easily manipulated and fooled. The amazing thing to me is that all of this isn't exactly news. It makes me seriously wonder how we arrived at where we are, and if it might have been intentional.
Dan,
You are correct. It is very disturbing on several levels.
One of the joys of reading is discovering why classics are classics.
Michael
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