Re: Door Slamming/Question

[Steve Krause <skrause@bgnet.bgsu.edu>]

I'm kind of jumping in on the middle of this here so forgive me if I'm 
saying something that has been said, but isn't the idea of choosing a 
major for the kind of "job" you can get a little, well, simple?  I mean, 
a four year college education should not simply be about majoring in 
something that is employable.  Rather, attending college is about getting 
an education.  Now, being educated might make you more employable and 
there are obviously some fields that  more "pragmatic" and trade-oriented 
than others, but even those fields should be about the goals of education 
and the pursuit of knowledge.  Afterall, if you major in business and 
hate what it is you're studying, why do it?

So I don't think we as "English-types" are under any obligation to give 
particular tips on what English majors can do with their degrees.  Or if 
we are, the answer should be "well, nothing," meaning that if you want to 
major in English or History or Poli Sci or Psych or a bunch of other 
humanites, you have to make yourself marketable in different ways.  I for 
one never found a job (temp or real) as a result of my education; I found 
jobs because I can type relatively fast and I know how to work a 
computer.  Now, I suppose I could have majored in something practical and 
learned those skills in some silly class, but if that would have meant 4 
years of something like business or accounting or whatever, I would have 
been bored and depressed.

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Steve Krause * Department of English * Bowling Green State University * 
Bowling Green, OH * 43401 * (419) 353-5104 * skrause@bgnet.bgsu.edu
* Now also available on WWW at http://www.bgsu.edu/~skrause/Steve.html *
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