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Notes -
I can't say I'm all that bothered by a decline in the number of humanities major. As you said, humans will continue to do art, philosophize, and reflect. We were doing it long before there was such a thing as a university or even a college.
That said, I have taken some online courses and I think there's something lost doing a class via Zoom or whatever vs doing one in person. I found the discussions in my in-person classes much more productive than in my zoom courses. (This may also be a function of investment, I'm willing to be persuaded here.) I took an ethics course and the online video sessions were dull and boring, hardly any debates. The professor had to start calling on people to get responses. I even tried taking on the role of shit-stirrer, giving answer I knew flew against the conventional ethical wisdom of the group, just to see if I could things moving but to no avail. By contrast, the in-person courses I took at this same facility with some of the same cohort were much more lively and animated.
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