Voc Ed Part 2: Do History Professors Have a Vocation?

So why is a distinction between Mr. Guelzo’s “true vocationalism” and the humanities artificial? He makes this point himself when he says that higher education has been doing vocational education without realizing it, in turning out graduates who find work in humanistic fields.  But if there is no intrinsic difference between peeling a potato and popping a vein, then there certainly is no intrinsic difference between universities and colleges training people to be nurses or accountants, as opposed to literature and history professors.  Nurses and accountants need the same humanistic orientation as museum docents.  Why draw lines based on an education system that was designed to serve a culture that no longer exists?

Again, he misses the point that higher education has evolved, of necessity, from a model where a liberal education was the sine qua non for becoming a useful member of society to one where students need a more complex and sophisticated set of knowledge and skills in order to be productive contributors. The humanities today play a larger role in rounding out a person who must function in a multifaceted, high tech environment, regardless of profession.  Society needs higher education to lead in this endeavor, not oppose it.

Mr. Guelzo contends that college is the trade school for the elite. He could not be more wrong.  Higher education serves the same function as it always has, to provide informed, productive members of society. The American system was indeed designed for an elite population (again, see my earlier post).  But education, along with society itself, has become democratized in ways that make it accessible to the general population.  Unfortunately, higher education, and its inhabitants, have not kept pace with the changes in society that demand a corresponding transformation of our education system.  Mr., Guelzo is a prime example. Rather than look for practical and beneficial ways to fix the current system, he ultimately retreats into a defensive position that is no longer viable.

By the way, do history professors have a vocation?

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