The decline of English

As I've noted before, except for some Freshman composition, I didn't take anything in college that could be called "English," because I was a foreign language major. But I do think it's important, and I've been sad to see it's importance go down hill since the radicals took over the campuses of the USA in the 1970s. The decline of English by William M. Chace, formerly of Berkeley, Stanford, Wesleyan, and Emory, notes the following grim statistics, the numbers of those majoring in the humanities dropped from a total of 30 percent to a total of less than 16 percent in 30 years:

English: from 7.6 percent of the majors to 3.9 percent
Foreign languages and literatures: from 2.5 percent to 1.3 percent
Philosophy and religious studies: from 0.9 percent to 0.7 percent
History: from 18.5 percent to 10.7 percent
Business: from 13.7 percent to 21.9 percent

I did a few word searches on this article--Marxism, feminism, deconstructionism, etc.--and see he doesn't address any root causes driving students away who don't want to be harangued during class with political poop and Michael Moore movie mayhem. Chace thinks "at the root is the failure of departments of English across the country to champion, with passion, the books they teach and to make a strong case to undergraduates that the knowledge of those books and the tradition in which they exist is a human good in and of itself." Maybe the students figure out on their own that selecting an obscure female author from 1910, or a gay Mexican who died for a cause in 1930 doesn't mean much in the big picture? Ya think?

When I was doing my research on private libraries I tracked down a fabulous Professor of English who had taught at a prestigious school--past tense. He'd been driven out of his position (he had tenure and was a full professor, but there are ways by denying funds for assistants, research and rearranging offices), and was in another state teaching at a state school extension, basic composition and grammar. But at least he was free of the radical demagogues. And he was a liberal--but beaten down by the feminists and marxists in his department because he wanted to teach what was important, not their political theories. We talked for a long time on the phone and his assistance was invaluable, his knowledge of private collections enormous. He kept cautioning me to close the door of my office, to make sure no one was listening. And that was in the mid-90s.