#6 Assigned 9/2

Issues In Higher Education:

The discipline of Literature and Language faces many uphill battles. Over the years, negative emotion has aimed towards the humanities, mostly from the scientific and mathematical side of the academic field, and questions of exactly how useful studying these subjects is to the individual, the United States, and humanity in general. All of this in light of camparing this discipline to the sciences or engineering.
After public scrutiny, funding for K-12 liberal arts education is another road block. "Students playing Catch-Up" brought up a shocking point; Texas Education asked for $30 Million yet received 5, right? Crazy.
And this lack of funding (and therefore research, teachers, improved lessons and texts) only starts a negative cycle within specifically the liberal arts education. The average student already dislikes the English and fine arts subjects, and the lack of funds to improve them is available yet hoarded for other areas of "governmental needs." This only causes further students to be unprepared in these subject areas. And these lack of skills causes further problems: no more students embracing their need to speak a foreign language, students without the ability to read, analyze and argue a position, students without a grasp of historical trends. These problems will inevitably spill into every area of life for most individuals, the United States, and eventually all of humanity.

Some questions we should ask to further this discussion/debate?
Why are Liberal Arts important? (Most might say "yes they are", yet live like they do not)
What life-values should we be pursuing? (money and riches only?)

TO become more informed on these issues, I suggest reading from all different points of view to understand the true nature of the discussion, all angles, and obviously keep discussion going.

Another ethical issue within higher education is plagiarism. I see plagiarism all the time while editing freshmen papers at the Student Learning Center. I can never call the student out on it, for I have no proof except that I've seen their previous papers; I edited their last draft, and it was nothing like this paper. I sit there wondering, "There's NO WAY they wrote this!" Many ethical issues continue to crowd into the higher education arena.

out.