#liberalarts — Public Fediverse posts

What Liberal Arts Education Is for (2024)

https://innig.net/teaching/liberal-arts-manifesto

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131034

#HackerNews #liberalarts #education #future #manifesto #teaching #2024

What Liberal Arts Education Is for (2024)

https://innig.net/teaching/liberal-arts-manifesto

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131034

#HackerNews #liberalarts #education #future #manifesto #teaching #2024

Someone complained their degree didn't get them a job. The response: what was your major? Both refrains. Both miss the point.

I have an area studies degree and I'm making espresso. Got it in 2020, already a working data scientist, because I wanted to know things. The espresso is just coffee.

College is not job training. It makes you a better person.

#HigherEducation #LiberalArts #Education

https://jameshoward.us/2026/06/05/your-major-is-irrelevant

Someone complained their degree didn't get them a job. The response: what was your major? Both refrains. Both miss the point.

I have an area studies degree and I'm making espresso. Got it in 2020, already a working data scientist, because I wanted to know things. The espresso is just coffee.

College is not job training. It makes you a better person.

#HigherEducation #LiberalArts #Education

https://jameshoward.us/2026/06/05/your-major-is-irrelevant

RE: https://mastodon.social/@climatenewsnow/116688186377550000

i need y’all to take a bat at every #techbro and anybody who said there should be no funding for #liberalArts degrees, that the future of college education is #STEM as in SCIENCE, technology, ENGINEERING and maths.

the biggest con was that T: there is no #technology without #arts, #crafts and #maths first. science and engineering are more specialized aspects of the other three. computers are a technology, not #tech.

#SiliconValley is a wasteland that should be nuked into oblivion.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@climatenewsnow/116688186377550000

i need y’all to take a bat at every #techbro and anybody who said there should be no funding for #liberalArts degrees, that the future of college education is #STEM as in SCIENCE, technology, ENGINEERING and maths.

the biggest con was that T: there is no #technology without #arts, #crafts and #maths first. science and engineering are more specialized aspects of the other three. computers are a technology, not #tech.

#SiliconValley is a wasteland that should be nuked into oblivion.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@FluentInFinance/116575326620964772

but #LiberalArts degrees are a waste of time!!! #STEM is the future of job security, and you won't even need #labor #unions because you’ll have real good jobs.

―every asshole #GOP #Republican #neoliberal looking to close universities all across the land since the 1980s because they were graduating people with “useless” diplomas

RE: https://mastodon.social/@FluentInFinance/116575326620964772

but #LiberalArts degrees are a waste of time!!! #STEM is the future of job security, and you won't even need #labor #unions because you’ll have real good jobs.

―every asshole #GOP #Republican #neoliberal looking to close universities all across the land since the 1980s because they were graduating people with “useless” diplomas

From ape to android, the pyramid of mind rises — seven sacred arts encoded in stone, mapping the full architecture of a soul ascending through number, music, and starlight. This is the blueprint civilization forgot.

https://silverlenz.carrd.co
Zap ⚡ if it resonates — support the transmissions directly: https://silverlenz.github.io/zack-zaps/
#Trivium #Quadrivium #SacredKnowledge #LiberalArts #ConsciousnessEvolution

Liberal arts and critical thinking are as relevant as ever. So Why is their education dwindling?
For decades, such departments have been actively crippled by institutions that shun them on principle.
Read Sarah Blackwood: https://archive.is/lOrsl

#humanities #acceleration #convergence #commoditization #accelerate #criticalThinking #technocriticism #capitalism #technique #education #academicChatter #liberalArts #English

Liberal arts and critical thinking are as relevant as ever. So Why is their education dwindling?
For decades, such departments have been actively crippled by institutions that shun them on principle.
Read Sarah Blackwood: https://archive.is/lOrsl

#humanities #acceleration #convergence #commoditization #accelerate #criticalThinking #technocriticism #capitalism #technique #education #academicChatter #liberalArts #English

Protect #liberalarts and #thinking
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/16/hampshire-college-closing?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
My take here
https://nkozphoto.com/index.php/2026/03/09/writing-critical-thinking-and-ai-where-are-we-headed/ #college #hampshire #students #cognition #writing #teaching #school

Protect #liberalarts and #thinking
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/16/hampshire-college-closing?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
My take here
https://nkozphoto.com/index.php/2026/03/09/writing-critical-thinking-and-ai-where-are-we-headed/ #college #hampshire #students #cognition #writing #teaching #school

All part of the #dumbing down of America and #Innovation.

"#Hampshire College’s demise is yet another blow to creative, outside‑the‑box options in higher education "

#College #LiberalArts #Technology #Education #Humanities #SocialScience #News #USA

https://theconversation.com/hampshire-colleges-demise-is-yet-another-blow-to-creative-outside-the-box-options-in-higher-education-280791

At the same time, #universities regarded as #elite & prominent public #schools receive way more applications than they could ever accept.

“It’s a bifurcated market between the haves & have-nots,” Selingo said. “The question is, how many of the have-nots will follow #Hampshire?”

#education #HigherEducation #LiberalArts #academia #colleges #economy #funding

At the same time, #universities regarded as #elite & prominent public #schools receive way more applications than they could ever accept.

“It’s a bifurcated market between the haves & have-nots,” Selingo said. “The question is, how many of the have-nots will follow #Hampshire?”

#education #HigherEducation #LiberalArts #academia #colleges #economy #funding

“There is a migration away from the small #LiberalArts #schools toward the big public or private #research institutions” with more student activities & academic offerings, particularly in #business & #technology, Selingo said.

As students become harder to enroll, he said, troubled schools compete by discounting #tuition through increased #aid. That reduces overall revenue while costs continue to rise, creating a “doom loop” of financial pressures.

#HigherEducation #colleges #economy #funding

“There is a migration away from the small #LiberalArts #schools toward the big public or private #research institutions” with more student activities & academic offerings, particularly in #business & #technology, Selingo said.

As students become harder to enroll, he said, troubled schools compete by discounting #tuition through increased #aid. That reduces overall revenue while costs continue to rise, creating a “doom loop” of financial pressures.

#HigherEducation #colleges #economy #funding

Part of #Hampshire College’s downfall may also relate to “public discussion in this country about the value of a #LiberalArts #education,” Chrisler said.

“Some of it is a persistent & ill informed, I think, belief at the #federal level that the only value of an education is what you #earn four years after your graduation,” she said.

#HigherEducation #academia #knowledge #colleges #universities #QualityOfLife #worth #value #economy #funding

Part of #Hampshire College’s downfall may also relate to “public discussion in this country about the value of a #LiberalArts #education,” Chrisler said.

“Some of it is a persistent & ill informed, I think, belief at the #federal level that the only value of an education is what you #earn four years after your graduation,” she said.

#HigherEducation #academia #knowledge #colleges #universities #QualityOfLife #worth #value #economy #funding

#HampshireCollege, a small #LiberalArts #school in Western #Massachusetts, will close permanently after the fall semester.

#Hampshire, in #Amherst, MA, joins an epidemic of #college closures over the past two decades. More than 300 US #colleges & #universities closed from 2008 to 2024, acc/to an analysis by The Hechinger Report.

#education #HigherEducation #academia #economy #funding
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/hampshire-college-closing-amherst-massachusetts-enrollment.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

#HampshireCollege, a small #LiberalArts #school in Western #Massachusetts, will close permanently after the fall semester.

#Hampshire, in #Amherst, MA, joins an epidemic of #college closures over the past two decades. More than 300 US #colleges & #universities closed from 2008 to 2024, acc/to an analysis by The Hechinger Report.

#education #HigherEducation #academia #economy #funding
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/hampshire-college-closing-amherst-massachusetts-enrollment.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

So, maybe I'm biased, but I personally think that degrees in #LiberalArts and #Humanities are very important in having well-rounded citizens -- who are exposed to art, history, geography, philosophy, etc. And I think that sort of education should be free and start at the high school level (or even before).

Hampshire College Will Close Amid Student Enrollment Declines

Other small private colleges like Hampshire have closed in recent years as financial pressures and competition for students increase.

by Mark Arsenault, April 14, 2026

Hampshire president, Jennifer Chrisler: “Some of it is a persistent and ill informed, I think, belief at the federal level that the only value of an education is what you earn four years after your graduation”.

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/hampshire-college-closing-amherst-massachusetts-enrollment.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/snPv7

#Authoritarianism #DumbingUsDown #CharacteristicsOfFascism #HigherEducation #Education #LearningForLearningsSake

So, maybe I'm biased, but I personally think that degrees in #LiberalArts and #Humanities are very important in having well-rounded citizens -- who are exposed to art, history, geography, philosophy, etc. And I think that sort of education should be free and start at the high school level (or even before).

Hampshire College Will Close Amid Student Enrollment Declines

Other small private colleges like Hampshire have closed in recent years as financial pressures and competition for students increase.

by Mark Arsenault, April 14, 2026

Hampshire president, Jennifer Chrisler: “Some of it is a persistent and ill informed, I think, belief at the federal level that the only value of an education is what you earn four years after your graduation”.

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/hampshire-college-closing-amherst-massachusetts-enrollment.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/snPv7

#Authoritarianism #DumbingUsDown #CharacteristicsOfFascism #HigherEducation #Education #LearningForLearningsSake

The Harleian Manuscript, dated about 1670, lists the seven liberal arts as being of importance to all Masons. They are: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Of which it notes geometry as being the most worthy, as no other art or science can exist without it.

All liberal arts are incorporated in Masonic learning, with geometry enjoying a very special role.

#Freemasonry #Freimaurerei #Masonry #2B1ASK1 #History #LiberalArts

The Harleian Manuscript, dated about 1670, lists the seven liberal arts as being of importance to all Masons. They are: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Of which it notes geometry as being the most worthy, as no other art or science can exist without it.

All liberal arts are incorporated in Masonic learning, with geometry enjoying a very special role.

#Freemasonry #Freimaurerei #Masonry #2B1ASK1 #History #LiberalArts

Witness the ethereal elegance of Geometry in this enchanting engraving! She embodies the essence of the liberal arts, merging beauty with precision. How does the personification of abstract concepts influence our understanding of knowledge?

#ClevelandArt #ArtHistory #LiberalArts
https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.432.24

Witness the ethereal elegance of Geometry in this enchanting engraving! She embodies the essence of the liberal arts, merging beauty with precision. How does the personification of abstract concepts influence our understanding of knowledge?

#ClevelandArt #ArtHistory #LiberalArts
https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.432.24

"The hottest job in tech: Writing words
The rise of slopaganda is fueling a surprising tech hiring boom."

It's all very fine and well, but you do need some time to research, think, structure your thought and, essentially, tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I find it very difficult in this media and work environment, where AI has accelerated absolutely everything, that this trend will persist more than one year or two...

"As the job changes and demand for narrative communications and storytellers rises, the number of communications experts able to work under rapidly evolving conditions and with a wide remit may be small, comms experts tell me, leading companies to offer hefty compensation packages in war for the best talent. A similar trend is unfolding among the few people who are AI experts, driving tech companies to offer astounding salaries to poach top talent from rival firms. While not of the same nine-figure caliber, in their own right, creatives are becoming "the high value person in tech now," Birch says.

For much of the tech boom, that high-value person was a software developer. Universities and coding bootcamps rushed to fill employment gaps and train up the next generation of tech workers. Young people were told coding would be a path to a lucrative, stable career. As of 2023, the most recent year the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released data for, computer science recent graduates faced an unemployment rate of 6.1%, while communications majors' unemployment rate sat at 4.5%. The number of open job posts for software engineers dropped by more than 60,000 between 2023 and late 2025, according to data from CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association for the US IT industry. The best defense against automation, some argue, will be a liberal arts degree.

Words might be easy to generate with AI, but good writing isn't ready for automation."

https://www.businessinsider.com/hottest-job-in-tech-writing-words-ai-hiring-2026-2

#AI #AISlop #Chatbots #LLMs #Writing #LiberalArts

"The hottest job in tech: Writing words
The rise of slopaganda is fueling a surprising tech hiring boom."

It's all very fine and well, but you do need some time to research, think, structure your thought and, essentially, tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I find it very difficult in this media and work environment, where AI has accelerated absolutely everything, that this trend will persist more than one year or two...

"As the job changes and demand for narrative communications and storytellers rises, the number of communications experts able to work under rapidly evolving conditions and with a wide remit may be small, comms experts tell me, leading companies to offer hefty compensation packages in war for the best talent. A similar trend is unfolding among the few people who are AI experts, driving tech companies to offer astounding salaries to poach top talent from rival firms. While not of the same nine-figure caliber, in their own right, creatives are becoming "the high value person in tech now," Birch says.

For much of the tech boom, that high-value person was a software developer. Universities and coding bootcamps rushed to fill employment gaps and train up the next generation of tech workers. Young people were told coding would be a path to a lucrative, stable career. As of 2023, the most recent year the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released data for, computer science recent graduates faced an unemployment rate of 6.1%, while communications majors' unemployment rate sat at 4.5%. The number of open job posts for software engineers dropped by more than 60,000 between 2023 and late 2025, according to data from CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association for the US IT industry. The best defense against automation, some argue, will be a liberal arts degree.

Words might be easy to generate with AI, but good writing isn't ready for automation."

https://www.businessinsider.com/hottest-job-in-tech-writing-words-ai-hiring-2026-2

#AI #AISlop #Chatbots #LLMs #Writing #LiberalArts

Speaking as a retired chemist, this is absolutely essential to help maintain California's strength in science and engineering.

On the other hand , the most valuable parts of my education (as opposed to training) came from the humanities. Yet we don't seem to recognize how important and central that non-STEM segment is. Why not?

Wiener pitches $23B ‘science bond’ to backfill Trump research cuts
https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/16/wiener-23-billion-science-bond-federal-cuts/

#STEM & #LiberalArts are both important to a good #Education

Speaking as a retired chemist, this is absolutely essential to help maintain California's strength in science and engineering.

On the other hand , the most valuable parts of my education (as opposed to training) came from the humanities. Yet we don't seem to recognize how important and central that non-STEM segment is. Why not?

Wiener pitches $23B ‘science bond’ to backfill Trump research cuts
https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/16/wiener-23-billion-science-bond-federal-cuts/

#STEM & #LiberalArts are both important to a good #Education

Uni comms people did a nice write-up on the teaching experiment I launched last fall with a life-long friend. #history #histodons #justice #highered #liberalarts

https://www.colgate.edu/news/stories/lifelong-friendship-leads-unique-academic-collaboration

Uni comms people did a nice write-up on the teaching experiment I launched last fall with a life-long friend. #history #histodons #justice #highered #liberalarts

https://www.colgate.edu/news/stories/lifelong-friendship-leads-unique-academic-collaboration

After finishing watching “The Sound of Music” I honestly hate how timely it feels.

Young impressionable men being pulled into ICE through toxic propaganda like Rolfe.

Military personnel with ethics being forced to retire or fell like Captain von Trapp.

The lack of privacy in communications like compromised telegrams.

And the majority of us who see the world around us as unrecognizable like the Austrians as Germany took over.

#USPol #History #CriticalThinkingSkills #LiberalArts

After finishing watching “The Sound of Music” I honestly hate how timely it feels.

Young impressionable men being pulled into ICE through toxic propaganda like Rolfe.

Military personnel with ethics being forced to retire or fell like Captain von Trapp.

The lack of privacy in communications like compromised telegrams.

And the majority of us who see the world around us as unrecognizable like the Austrians as Germany took over.

#USPol #History #CriticalThinkingSkills #LiberalArts

Hivemind:

I am looking for suitable reading on data for a second-year undergraduate module called "Liberal Arts and the Public Sphere". Any recommendations for monographs or essays on critical data literacy or the importance of data to the political economy are gratefully received. The students do not necessarily have advanced numeracy or statistical skills, so the reading must be fairly accessible.

#HE #teaching #liberalarts #humanities #data

Hivemind:

I am looking for suitable reading on data for a second-year undergraduate module called "Liberal Arts and the Public Sphere". Any recommendations for monographs or essays on critical data literacy or the importance of data to the political economy are gratefully received. The students do not necessarily have advanced numeracy or statistical skills, so the reading must be fairly accessible.

#HE #teaching #liberalarts #humanities #data

The engraving "Geometria" masterfully embodies the harmony of intellectual pursuits and divine inspiration. A pregnant figure gracefully draws geometric forms in the sky, elevating the liberal arts to celestial heights. How do you interpret this blend of knowledge and femininity?
#ClevelandArt #LiberalArts #RenaissanceArt
https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.432.24

The engraving "Geometria" masterfully embodies the harmony of intellectual pursuits and divine inspiration. A pregnant figure gracefully draws geometric forms in the sky, elevating the liberal arts to celestial heights. How do you interpret this blend of knowledge and femininity?
#ClevelandArt #LiberalArts #RenaissanceArt
https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.432.24

Hype for the Future 42/284: Locations of the Six Colleges

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2025/12/12/hype-for-the-future-42-284-locations-of-the-six-colleges/

Hype for the Future 42/284: Locations of the Six Colleges

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2025/12/12/hype-for-the-future-42-284-locations-of-the-six-colleges/

Thank goodness for that tiny population of humans who pursue "useless #knowledge", like philosophy, pure mathematics, and sundry #LiberalArts (as in "liberating knowledge"), because those pieces of seemingly-useless knowledge have a habit of become relevant, useful, and often downright indispensable, later.

#Colleges Are Preparing to Self-Lobotomize
The skills that #students will most need in the #AI era—creative thinking, the capacity to learn new things, flexible modes of analysis—are precisely those that are likely to be eroded by inserting AI into the #education process. The skills needed to thrive in an AI world might counterintuitively be exactly those that the #liberalarts have long cultivated.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/colleges-ai-education-students/685039/
https://archive.ph/CgHax

On the Horizon 24D: The City of North Adams, Massachusetts

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/on-the-horizon-24d-the-city-of-north-adams-massachusetts/

Don't mistake having fun with being harmless

https://piefed.social/c/shermanposting/p/1386229/don-t-mistake-having-fun-with-being-harmless

Don't mistake having fun with being harmless

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1386228/don-t-mistake-having-fun-with-being-harmless

Is #AI a retribution derivative movement for social dilettantes who didn’t quite have the #design, #art, #music nor #writing skills to create works on their own??

Part of the joy of creating is building & improving on one’s skillsets and the results it yields.

It’s the journey.

It’s literally putting the “mid in journey”.

#LiberalArts