{"id":276,"date":"2003-05-10T12:44:45","date_gmt":"2003-05-10T17:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=276"},"modified":"2003-05-10T12:44:45","modified_gmt":"2003-05-10T17:44:45","slug":"maybe_we_should","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/10\/maybe_we_should.html","title":{"rendered":"Maybe we should stick with Shop and Driver’s Ed"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m sure there are probably a number of folks out there who think that the classics are a waste of time, goofy stuff like medieval history classes are silly, and the whole idea of education for the sake of education (vs. for some objective, practical purpose) is dubious.<\/p>\n

It’s a bit … well, alarming to discover that the British secretary of state for education is one of them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charles Clarke, the education secretary, has continued his assault on the great subjects of academe by revealing that he regards medieval history as “ornamental” and a waste of public money.
\nNot long after expressing the view that he didn’t think much of classics and regarded the idea of education for its own sake as “a bit dodgy”, Mr Clarke, who read maths and economics at King’s College, Cambridge, went one further.
\n“I don’t mind there being some medievalists around for ornamental purposes, but there is no reason for the state to pay for them,” he said on a visit to University College, Worcester. He only wanted the state to pay for subjects of “clear usefulness”, according to today’s Times Higher Educational Supplement.<\/p>\n

As a recipient of a History degree (thesis focusing on Reformation Europe) and a liberal arts education — granted, from a private institution — I’m more than a bit appalled.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: “The secretary of state was basically getting at the fact that universities exist to enable the British economy and society to deal with the challenges posed by the increasingly rapid process of global change.”<\/p>\n

Oh, is that <\/i>what they’re for? Well, I’m glad we’ve got that <\/i>cleared up.<\/p>\n

(via GoaF<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m sure there are probably a number of folks out there who think that the classics are a waste of time, goofy stuff like medieval history classes are silly, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132099,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/23\/the-education-secretary-nominee-looks-even-more-problematic.html","url_meta":{"origin":276,"position":0},"title":"The Education Secretary nominee looks even more problematic","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Nov-16 4:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Aside from funky views on school vouchers, she has some close family connections to... the Religious Right... Intelligent Design... Amway... and Blackwater?Yeah, it's not necessarily fair to blame someone for their family's foibles, but when you start talking about so many family members, it starts to look a little off.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133555,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/27\/another-great-trump-nominee.html","url_meta":{"origin":276,"position":1},"title":"Another great Trump nominee","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 27-May-17 12:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Or we think he's a nominee. He says he's a nominee. The Dept. of Homeland Security hasn't actually confirmed (or denied) he's a nominee for an assistant secretary position.Anyway, tough guy Sheriff David Clarke had his deputies harass a fellow airplane passenger, Dan Black, when they got to their destination.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136437,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/its-good-to-be-the-secretary-of-for-profit-education.html","url_meta":{"origin":276,"position":2},"title":"It’s GOOD to be the Secretary of For-Profit Education!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-May-18 3:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It means you get to get rid of \/ reassign the folk looking into fraud at for-profit schools and provide government jobs for all your buddies at those very same institutions without any more embarrassing encounters with the investigating team at the water cooler! It's win-win for everybody! Education Department\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/devos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132573,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/18\/ladies-and-gentlemen-your-probable-next-secretary-of-education.html","url_meta":{"origin":276,"position":3},"title":"Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Probable Next Secretary of Education","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Jan-17 12:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Given that Betsy DeVos is disdainful of public education on principle, one would expect her to tear down the Department of Education during her tenure. But one would expect it to be torn down based on principles and consideration, not because she's clueless about public education and educational debate. It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133991,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/29\/the-oh-so-generous-president.html","url_meta":{"origin":276,"position":4},"title":"The Oh-So-Generous President","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-17 12:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump has been kind enough to donate $100K of his presidential salary (his Q2 pay) to the Department of Education. This came complete with an elaborate official announcement from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.Of course, the President has also proposed a budget that slashes $9.2 billion from the Department of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133396,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/04\/education-reform-gop-style.html","url_meta":{"origin":276,"position":5},"title":"Education Reform, GOP Style","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-May-17 1:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To be fair, this is one Republican lawmaker. So far. State Rep. Paul Mosley in Arizona doesn't like compulsory education requirements for kids.'Education used to be a privilege. People used to believe getting an education was something you had to be privileged to get, that you had to work hard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}