> How about if a bunch of folks spend 4 years getting English degrees because sophisticated communication is a critical skill when your entire economy is based

> How about if a bunch of folks spend 4 years getting English degrees because sophisticated communication is a critical skill when your entire economy is based on information? This is an argument for teaching Communications or Rhetoric. It fails completely as an argument for English, which is mostly an exercise in poorly imitating literary analysis in some style from the 50’s or later. Even if we did want better communicators a year of focused effort on communications/rhetoric would be enough rather than spending four. > Hopefully the parallel continues and our great grandkids can take their advanced education for granted the way we take secondary school for granted today. If tertiary education is expanded massively it will only be by the same mechanism as secondary education was, dramatic lowering of standards.