I don't know if ya'll have seen this, but it disturbs me a little (and so I feel it essential sharing ... LOL).
There's a web-based ad (I saw it on MySpace --- I know, I know for shame, for shame) for some kind of online/continuing education that begins with the question "Are you interested in a career in..." and then shows the same fresh scrubbed blonde who has obviously been paid (because she is smiling) to be photo-shopped into various "uniforms" ...
Criminal Justice -- she looks a bit like Heather Locklear from TJ Hooker here
Education -- she looks prim and proper, and is holding an apple
Business - she's wearing a nice blue suit
Health Care - dressed in scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck
Something Else - just an outline of this poor girl, with no specific picture, and
Liberal Arts - she's smiling and holding a MICROPHONE
Sadly, and maybe it's because she's a young, beautiful blonde, there's no options for Science (or maybe nobody looks good with a pocket protector, microscope or calculator). But that's not my biggest beef.
As you may have guessed, my main problem is with the Liberal Arts choice.
Since WHEN did Liberal Arts mean Entertainment? Like American Idol? Or do they mean, in a twisted sort of Amerikka way that Liberal somehow implies fluff, without substance, just some kind of anti-technology, anti-intellectual, anti-real work sort of existence?
Last time I looked, Liberal Arts included History, Archaeology, Language, Art, Music and a myriad of so-called "soft sciences" like Psychology, Anthropology, Philosophy? Isn't everything that isn't Biology, Chemistry or Physics derivative, or somehow lumped under the business of Business a Liberal Art?
Isn't liberal arts really about THINKING in coordination with some kind of doing, and not about bandying about with a microphone and TALKING (or singing)?
If you judge it based on these kinds of advertisements, apparently not.
What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong with people? What is wrong with education?
