Nor philosophy.
As Dunman notes, Lt. Gov. Hampton’s ignorance, while lamentable, isn’t the most relevant point. Rather, it’s about the value of education as a whole, and whether funding of it and access to it matter.
Commentary: Ignore the rhetoric — majoring in history is not a career-killer, by Joe Dunman (Insider Louisville)
Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton recently caused controversy during an interview with the editorial board of the Eastern Progress, the student newspaper at Eastern Kentucky University.
While explaining Gov. Matt Bevin’s plan to force state schools to compete against each other for already dwindling funding, Hampton, unprompted, offered some advice to incoming students: “I’ll tell you, if I was a student, I would be looking for degrees where people are looking for employees, that’s what. I would not be studying history unless you have a job lined up. Unless there’s somebody looking for a history major.”
That sparked harsh responses from former history majors, current history professors, newspaper reporters, and political cartoonists. Rightly so, because while engineering and business majors like our Lt. Governor may not realize it, majoring in history is not a career-killer.