Fastest Growing & Shrinking College Majors (Graph)

[mamselle]

I find it ironic that some here are questioning the seriousness of rec, leisure and kinesiology.  Isn't this the exact same attitude many of you fight regarding your own studies in History, Literature, etc?  The reality is that these fields of study have a lot more direct job opportunities than most humanity majors, but that's not really the main point.  Some people study sustainable tourism, global trends and patterns, etc.   All things that seem pretty reasonable to me.

I dont have a horse in this race, just find some of the attitudes in this thread a little odd.

Thank you, yes.

I'm finding it hard to understand the dismissive attitude springing up here as well (except to account it to low self-image issues).

I've had kinesiology courses, for which we memorized muscles, ligaments, bones and anatomical regional structures, had to do lab dissections (frog and cat), demonstrate muscle group uses, indicate potentials and preventative actions for injuries, etc. We learned ADP-ATP transfer in order to understand 'second-breath' phenomena, how to explain that to athletes and dancers so they wouldn't presume on such processes beyond their sustainable practice in rehearsal time/team sport exertions, learned about the physiology of hydration, etc. 

For five years I also supported the executive director of a group founded in the 1880s that focused on the religious side of the leisure studies question (and combined with the unions to legislate for "the weekend" in employment contracts): we updated our materials, considered what the issues are for members of the 'nones' (who consider themselves spiritual but not religious), sought to locate where interfaith connectivity and shared belief systems blended, or were differentiated, etc. This is actually a serious issue in quality-of-life considerations now; one board member, a financial advisor/lawyer, said he left Wall Street the day he heard his boss say, "If you don't come in on Sunday, don't come back on Monday," to indicate the unhealthy levels of 'dedication' expected.

One of the folks I cited in an earlier post was another board member, academic admin, and respected author; the conversations I took minutes on were as complex as any philosophy or theology course I had ever had.

Maybe, don't diss what you don't understand?

Or even--find out more about it?

M.

[Hibush]

I suspect a lot of majors, especially those with an applied bent, can manifest as complex transdisciplinary scholarly pursuits or a goofy parodies of an academic program. I know examples in my applied field, and the goofy ones definitely hurt the credibility of the good ones.

[mamselle]

Exactly.

M.

[artalot]

Oh, yeah, people should study what they want for sure. And I'm sure some of these are thoughtful programs - I'll be honest, kinesiology at my uni is not one of them, but I know from my time at a more medically focused uni that it can be. However, in general, I'm not in favor of four year degrees that lead to very narrow jobs. They are not flexible. What happens when COVID hits and all the parks and camps close down? A degree in leisure planning just isn't as flexible as a broader degree - and I'm thinking Marketing or Organizational Studies here, not English. However, a focused certificate or 2-year degree in leisure studies I can see.
Looking at from the perspective of ROI, which people love to use against the humanities, I can't see a four-year degree to become a camp counselor or a even a physical trainer paying off. At least with English you can write well. I value my kino students and meet them where they are, but their program has stripped away so much of the core writing and gen ed curriculum that they write very poorly. It's hard to advance in your career when your basic communication skills are lacking.

[mamselle]

But wouldn't that be like saying that the arts are only about cartoon drawings, and anime and graphic novels are a cop-out?

I've taught art history, I do not give an "easy A" course, but I get a lot of students taking Art Intro who expect to be assigned things like, "draw your cat" and "look at these pretty pictures" whereas I take them down to the ground of color theory, spatial analysis, ties to historical moments, the geographic dynamics of Buddhist influences throughout Southeast Asia, links to other art forms, etc.

I'm saying the same about having taught dance in various settings where the focus is on its ties to bodily awareness, concepts of moving through time and space that inform various choreographic ideas, and indeed, the religious/philosophical side of the leisure studies work that some--notably Heschel, and others--have done.

It's regrettable that the programs you've seen have been so 'Kines-light' but taken in tandem with rigorous movement studies programs and movement education backgrounding, it can be, as Hibush points out, much more contentual and demanding.

I've also found the preparation in the humanities to provide a pivotal base for being nimble in the past few years--if I hadn't taken that electronic music course back in the 1970s, I might have been baffled by all the Zoom stuff; I can bring in, say, a YouTube video on Baroque dance to my music theory class so they see why steady beat patterns mattered, etc., since I can't have them all get up and dance as we would have in the past.

Anyway, back to my article...

M.

[kaysixteen]

Well there has been a trend in American higher ed, at least since WWII and the explosion of the number of students going to college, to college-ize certain disciplines that used to be things learned on the job by folks with hs diplomas, etc, and the corresponding tendency to professionalize fields that used to be bachelor's level, by converting many of these BAs to Master's level degrees, without corresponding changes in the rigor or intensity of the programs (the MLS is one such degree).   One wonders whether this is indicative of a positive development.

[marshwiggle]

Well there has been a trend in American higher ed, at least since WWII and the explosion of the number of students going to college, to college-ize certain disciplines that used to be things learned on the job by folks with hs diplomas, etc, and the corresponding tendency to professionalize fields that used to be bachelor's level, by converting many of these BAs to Master's level degrees, without corresponding changes in the rigor or intensity of the programs (the MLS is one such degree).   One wonders whether this is indicative of a positive development.

It's a clear illustration of the principle that reality will win over wishful thinking. The idea that basically everyone should "go to college" follows the idea that everyone should "finish high school" so that the only real way these can happen is by expansion of what it means to "finish high school" or "go to college" so that it hides the fact that the change in students' objective achievement is negligible.