Because all liberal arts programs these days exist for is job security for faculty and staff. The kids are there as cash cows and indoctrination fodder.
Yup. Too many pointless majors.
Quite a number of years ago now, I earned a liberal arts degree. Throughout my program, I had no idea what my professors thought about anything, except the subject matter they were teaching.
I was taught that, when reading literature, I had to consider the times in which it was written. Context was important. We also looked at “great themes:” life, death, love, honor, and so forth.
A few years later, a family member was taking a college English class and was struggling. She had an important paper to write and was having a hard time and asked if I could help. I told her that I would try. The paper was to be based on a Hemingway short story.
I had never read that particular story, so I did so. I made some notes and did some thinking. I then wrote down some notes that I thought my relative might use in writing her paper (I did not write it for her).
She answered me back: no, no, this won’t do. It’s not what my professor is looking for.
What? She sent me a copy of her class notes taken from the professor’s lecture.
The story I had read was fairly early Hemingway; it was written shortly after he returned from Europe, where he had been an ambulance driver in wartime. Silly me, I thought that had had some impact on the story he wrote.
What did her professor read in the story, that I did not see? Feminism. FEMINISM? HEMINGWAY? Really? The notes consisted of a bunch of abject nonsense, conjured totally out of the professor’s head and not from the actual story.
After more thought, I gave my relative a different set of points to use in writing the paper. I told her that what I was giving her was complete nonsense BUT it was what her professor wanted to hear. She used what I gave her and the professor loved it and gave her a high grade on the paper. (My professors probably would not have given the paper a passing grade).
The professor wasn’t interested in a paper reflecting the students’ own thoughts and analysis of the story; she was interested in having her own ideas and biases reflected back to her.
(I could imagine my own professors’ response to her paper. “That’s what I said in my lecture. You just repeated it back to me. I want to know what YOU thought!”)
We subject students to that sort of teaching and expect critical thinking in return?
I ended up going into a completely different professional field, but I’ve always regarded my liberal arts education as foundational. I never regretted getting that degree.
I’m sure it helps that I graduated with a grand total of $1200 in student loans!