[lit-ideas] Mark Edmundson's The ideal English Major
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas " <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 08:43:24 -0700
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Ideal-English-Major/140553/
After I got back from Korea I was stationed for a while at 29 Palms. Back
in those days they didn't have air conditioning, only things called "Swamp
Coolers." In the shade outside my hut one day I looked at a thermometer
that read 137 degrees. I decided not to stay in the Marine Corps and began
checking books out of the base library, "classics." I decided I wanted a
"classical education" or something as close to it as I could get either by
reading or by actually attending college.
Because I fired expert I was invited to become a rifle instructor at Camp
Pendleton; which was a much better situation than anything at 29 Palms, but
in the end decided to get out of the Marine Corps and go to college. And
there I encountered something discussed in Edmondson's article. I was
interested in History and Philosophy as well as English literature and
poetry, but in the end majored in English as the closest I could come to
obtaining a "Classical Education." I didn't intend to be passive about it
but to select electives that would foster my goal. I wasn't so much
enamored of the teaching as I was the reading list I was building, books I
would read after I graduated to further my education. A few professors
impressed me, but many did not.
A Classical Education two or three hundred years ago was supposed to equip a
person to engage in any endeavor he desired. I believed that and
demonstrated it by learning Engineering - not my first choice, but the best
job available at the time I graduated.
As time went on I heard from recent college graduates who came to work at
Douglas and McDonnell Douglas, and read in articles & books especially The
Closing of the American Mind that an English Major no longer enabled a
student to think for himself. Instead the student was indoctrinated with
Leftist ideals. But here in this article is Mark Edmundson presenting the
English Major as what it was back when I was in school - as a major finer
than anything in modern education.
Who is this Mark Edmundson? He teaches in Virginia, the state from which
most of the best Civil War generals came, and the state that fired Edgar
Rice Burroughs to send a Virginia Cavalry Officer by the name of John Carter
to Mars in his "Barsoom" series of novels. I checked the internet and
several scholars have disagreed with Edmundson for denigrating modern
poetry.
I sent for a couple of his books to see what else he has to say.
Lawrence
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