The Death of the English Degree, Brought on by Critical Analysis

[UTUSN]

3. R#1 & K for, I are an English (lit) major, & when *was* it not a poor choice for the marketplace?!1

So now the divide is creative vs analytical? Back then for me it was prescriptive vs descriptive grammar. I had eagerly signed up for an advanced Grammar course, thinking I would get myself a rock solid foundation for all else, only to find out that "prescriptive" grammar was all so previous century, that it was all about being "descriptive" about how language actually is being used in the day, with searches for the "deep structure or meaning" of strings of words. So then there I was with two degrees in English and having to look up what "dative" means. I guess I might have studied up on my own, so why go to college. Now: Thank Zeus for Google!1

It's almost like the Cheech joke about language: "Mexican Americans, we've come a long way. We go to college now. And major in Spanish. And get B(s)."

Then again, it was the '70s, when the Educational theory was that the "old" schooling was rote stuff about the pyramids, that it was supposed to be about here-and-now and self-esteem or something. So what new stuff have I actually learned in the past couple of decades --- how amazing the pyramids and Romans and all them things are. (I'm using my Descriptive Grammar here.)