It seems to me that educated people should know something about the 13-billion-year prehistory of our species and the basic laws governing the physical and living world, including our bodies and brains. They should grasp the timeline of human history from the dawn of agriculture to the present. They should be exposed to the diversity of human cultures, and the major systems of belief and value with which they have made sense of their lives. They should know about the formative events in human history, including the blunders we can hope not to repeat. They should understand the principles behind democratic governance and the rule of law. They should know how to appreciate works of fiction and art as sources of aesthetic pleasure and as impetuses to reflect on the human condition.
On top of this knowledge, a liberal education should make certain habits of rationality second nature. Educated people should be able to express complex ideas in clear writing and speech. They should appreciate that objective knowledge is a precious commodity, and know how to distinguish vetted fact from superstition, rumor, and unexamined conventional wisdom. They should know how to reason logically and statistically, avoiding the fallacies and biases to which the untutored human mind is vulnerable. They should think causally rather than magically, and know what it takes to distinguish causation from correlation and coincidence. They should be acutely aware of human fallibility, most notably their own, and appreciate that people who disagree with them are not stupid or evil. Accordingly, they should appreciate the value of trying to change minds by persuasion rather than intimidation or demagoguery.
It is correct in the latter case, incorrect in the former. It largely doesn’t matter, but recruiters I know, for example, throw out resumes for this particular error (though one had heard some schools actually encourage the practice, to the student’s disservice) and some people (myself included until I thought better of it) think less of authors who make it. Linguistics as a discipline is descriptive, but people who are not linguists treat people differently for making errors.
I agree with you as literally started, and am not a Wikipedia naysayer, but that again is descriptive linguistics. People do say that. People also do say “y’all aints gots no Beefaronis?” (One of my favorite examples heard by my own ears in a c store), and people do think differently of either than they do as what is sometimes called “blackboard grammar.” I would recommend John McWhorter as a linguist who describes this better than I can. Or just say to yourself “huh, interesting opinion” and walk away; I swear I won’t be offended :-)
Why? It strikes me as a good way to sort out people who have bad attention to detail, as well as avoiding the SJW-types more interested in accusing everyone in the company of sexism than doing any actual work.
The idea of the well rounded human being strikes again! That is why we moved away from the structure of classical education and towards the free-form well rounded-ness of the liberal arts education. It allows for curiosity and testing out your own ability.
This is a god read: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119321/harvard-ivy-league-should-judge-students-standardized-tests
Excerpt:
Max L.
Looks like they agree that specialization is for insects :-)
“They”? The author is Steven Pinker.
“They” can be singular or plural.
It is correct in the latter case, incorrect in the former. It largely doesn’t matter, but recruiters I know, for example, throw out resumes for this particular error (though one had heard some schools actually encourage the practice, to the student’s disservice) and some people (myself included until I thought better of it) think less of authors who make it. Linguistics as a discipline is descriptive, but people who are not linguists treat people differently for making errors.
It’s a bit more complicated than correct or incorrect:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
I agree with you as literally started, and am not a Wikipedia naysayer, but that again is descriptive linguistics. People do say that. People also do say “y’all aints gots no Beefaronis?” (One of my favorite examples heard by my own ears in a c store), and people do think differently of either than they do as what is sometimes called “blackboard grammar.” I would recommend John McWhorter as a linguist who describes this better than I can. Or just say to yourself “huh, interesting opinion” and walk away; I swear I won’t be offended :-)
That’s nuts.
I don’t think so, but either way, if one wants a job at GE, to use a recognizable example, one might want to know.
Why? It strikes me as a good way to sort out people who have bad attention to detail, as well as avoiding the SJW-types more interested in accusing everyone in the company of sexism than doing any actual work.
The idea of the well rounded human being strikes again! That is why we moved away from the structure of classical education and towards the free-form well rounded-ness of the liberal arts education. It allows for curiosity and testing out your own ability.
You know, sarcasm doesn’t work well on the internet.
Oh, but it does, it does :-D