Tensions in higher-ed debates

Erin O’Connor is onto something in her discussion of this week’s Chronicle of Higher Ed article reporting a study of college student’s career orientation and lack of interest in a liberal education, and how a liberal education may well be at odds with the world-competitiveness language accompanying the announcement of a blue-ribbon commission on higher-ed directions in the U.S. Only one quibble: O’Connor’s claim that liberal education is clearly disappearing is a standard myth of declension, assuming that there was some mythical Golden Age when college students gladly focused on a liberal education, when faculty taught it (well), and when everyone agreed on what a liberal education was.
(And now, back to the grind of grading for me, and then editorial stuff, indexing, …)