In case you wondered …

… Why the Humanities Must Remain Human (Or Die) | Joshua Mayo | First Things.

History, English, and language departments lurch and lumber on, but the final tire-iron to the head might be student enrollment. Data from the Education Department's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System tells us now that fewer than 12 percent of students earning bachelor’s degrees are graduating from humanities programs. That’s a 20-percent drop over the last ten years. Of course, the decline owes something to market forces. But is it too speculative to wonder whether a defect in the humanities’ product might factor in? When diverse theoretical agendas replace the fundamental arts of truth-seeking—the glittering cosmos of great books and great ideas—it is no surprise that students want to blow this popsicle stand. “Four years of Foucault, Cixous, and Žižek? Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll shop elsewhere.”