Jonah Goldberg has a post over at National Review’s the corner blog titled On Rigor and Academia. I have been harping on my kids about this for about five years now. We have an agreement in the family that they can study anything they want as long as the get a hard science or engineering degree first. Of course, after they are out of homeschool (starting next year in our case), we have a whole lot less control over such things. I think the transition from the exercise of control to the exercise of influence needs to start at about age two–some argue even younger.
Still, it is arguably easier to get into a great Journalism masters degree program, law school, medical school, or (hopefully) a hard science graduate program with an Electrical Engineering or math degree than with a degree in sociology or women’s studies. I struck up a conversation on an airplane with a law student on an interview trip recently. We talked about preparation for law school. He pointed me to this website. I found it interesting that the best way to prepare for the LSAT is to get a degree in engineering or physics. My kids are young and they could chose a different path, but I want them to have all the information I can provide to them to help make the right choice.
Update: It just keeps getting better. I take this quote by Mr. Goldberg from a follow-up post: “Or, I can sum up my view of why the humanities are less rigorous with even more pith: There’s no math.” I LOVE it.