Trent W. Buck <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
I'll buy into your second argument, that there are cultural reasons to study european history. The current economic climate would encourage me to keep at least Chinese history on the syllabus, though.
I agree with both points, and moreover the reasons for learning about Asia are not entirely economic. Countries and regions which are economically significant usually become culturally important as well. Earlier in this thread I mentioned social relations and immigration patterns as additional reasons.
My objection to English literature upthread was not about people reading the stuff, but about being asked to write essays where your final mark is porportional to how much bullshit you spew about what the author was trying to say, and how closely your assertions match the personal biases of the teacher.
Maybe I just had abnormally incompetent English teachers.
Incompetent, perhaps; abnormally so... that depends on the average level of competence, about which I'm not optimistic.