The Great Disconnect

First off, Jack, I'm sure you caught the reference hidden in that title. It's a bit of a response to your last title which I'm sure was a reference to a crappy hardcore band.

But enough personal matters! I'm here to talk about... more personal matters. But said matters are more group friendly, I'm sure. So, onto the bulk. I think that booky people such as ourselves tend to live in our own little bubble of literary goodness. This fact rings even truer in a classroom full of lit majors.

There seems to be, by popular perception, a disconnect between the study of literature/writing and what has commonly been called the "real world." The fact is that many people just don't see what we contribute to the "real world." Departments like philosophy often receive the same flack because such theoretical fields don't offer the more concrete services that the engineering or architecture depts provide. Furthermore, there is also a disconnect between the academic world and the "real world." So people who are studying literature are placed two steps down on the ladder of practicality.

I don't really feel the need to pander to my audience here because we're all very esteemed literati, I'm sure. We all know exactly how we fit into the "real world" but a question raised in my academic world has prompted me to explore just how disconnected we are from other fields. The English field in particular is plagued with a rather thick fog of smugness and pretension. I mean, seriously, how often in an English class has the engineering dept been the butt of a joke (and how often were these jokes told by teachers). Obviously other departments tell the same jokes about us. So I ask you this, what's with all the hate?

This was all brought upon by a student who was ranting about her geology practical in which she had to identify rocks. She remarked "Who really cares? They're all rocks" to which another student smugly replied "Let's see you say that when you find that the foundation of your house has been built on shale." The fact is that all the fields in college serve a purpose but we all hate taking our GE classes. Why? Because we are simply not interested. We often forget all the information in these GE classes a few months after completing them which makes them, in our eyes, practically useless.

Now this is really where I want to open up the floor for discussion because quite frankly I'm tired of Eric getting all the comments on his blog. So, what are the benefits of the disconnect? By this I mean the vertical style of learning involving specialization. Do you see any merit in the horizontal style of learning across the curriculum? Do GE classes help us directly, indirectly, or not at all? Would all the fields be better off if they were disconnected and brutally competent in their own craft? Is it wrong to assign certain classes as GE just to keep that specific dept alive? Should we keep hating just for fun?

But honestly, because language is the medium through which all the other departments teach, we win at college.

Let me hear it,

Rainamoinen

P.S. Jack, I thought you were better than that.