https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-majoring-in-english-worth-it-11568068987
Full disclosure: I was not an English major, but I
have been Highly Qualified as an English teacher (recently retired after 25
non-consecutive years teaching in three states), and have been an adjunct
instructor of English for 14 years. I am also a published poet, and have a
novel in the works.
Why didn’t
I major in English? I like languages, and majored in German at Penn State, BA
1974, two years later a MA at University of California-Irvine, with a stop along
the way at UC-Berkeley. The challenge of becoming fluent/literate in another
language fascinated me. Had I not majored in German, it would have been
Journalism. At Penn State I was active with the daily campus paper and the
radio station.
This
article talks about more than the “all you can do is teach” commentary. The
curriculum has changed, been watered down in my opinion. Read and see how many
English departments do not require a course in Shakespeare! I am all for
different emphases and programs, but if one camps out exclusively in a
race/gender program, one misses so much.
There were some authors I wished had bene
in my German curriculum, but I wanted to read the classic ones. But that’s for
another post. All in all it matters where one goes to college or university.
And it also matters if one reads other writers. Each quarter at Penn State I
made sure I read one book a month that was not required for any class. I read
things that were referenced in required books, or that simply interested me.
And this extra reading never failed to enrich me.
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