Hmm …

… Why the humanities? Coetzee asks if universities have “redefined themselves out of existence” | The Book Haven. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

 Can you not simply design a pair of one­-semester courses – courses in which all undergraduates, no matter what their career track, will be required to enrol – one course to be entitled “Reading and Writing”, in which students will be trained to dissect arguments and write good expository prose; and the other to be entitled “Great Ideas”, in which they will be briefed on the main currents of world thought from Ancient Egypt to the present? A pair of courses like that will not require an entire faculty of humanities behind them, merely a school of critical literacy staffed with bright young instructors.

The answer to Coetzee's question is no. A mind made familiar with the classics by reading them, pondering them, and discussing them is an experienced mind. A survey course is not the same thing. It's a menu, not a meal.