It would be nice of some of our modern-day anti-intellectual conservatives knew that several of our founding fathers thought a liberal-arts education was just about the highest thing one could do.

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine. -John Adams

Fascinating, the state of liberal arts education. And instructive.

I think it would be a serious mistake to assume that this list tells us anything about "the state of liberal arts education." We are talking here about a list of courses, some of which are extension, non-credit courses, out of sea of hundreds of thousands of courses at thousands of universities and colleges.

And I am with James: in limited quantities such courses could actually be quite useful in getting students to think--which is supposed to be one of the main purposes of going to school in the first place.

Over in the real world, I shudder to think about the welfare of workers in a chemical plant whose engineers skipped physical chemistry for a You Tube version of how the Simpson's think about operating fluidized bed boilers

Presumably, these are elective courses. Engineers are still going to have to take engineering courses, historians history courses, and so forth. The likely result of these sorts of classes is that lit majors learn something about science and scientists learn something about philosophy. Not so bad, really.

Over in the real world, I shudder to think about the welfare of workers in a chemical plant whose engineers skipped physical chemistry for a You Tube version of how the Simpson's think about operating fluidized bed boilers...................

"So how do you 'feel' about Homer's musings about that rising temperature? Can we draw parallels with rising racial tensions in the South? What does this say about changing values in America? ....... KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!

He lived on campus, in a dorm, devoting his time to getting in, get a decent education and get out. He graduated with honors with a degree in Information Technology.

During my visits with him, on campus, I met two of his roommates in his dorm room.
Both were very bright young men, plotting a course through college studies that would take them four years and eight months to complete. Essentially, spending five years in securing a degree.
My son told me that they were taking enough courses to get a degree, eventually taking the same courses he did to complete the course of study but filling five years of college with "fluff and stuff" to stretch it out to five years.

Parents have to be careful; their students are closer to being babies than adults. Parents should be more conscientious as to what they allow their kids to sign up for, how they spend their time, and what the short term goals of their are..