Jeffrey,
I read the article on the worth of the Humanities in the NYTimes and thought about it a great deal. I think (and yes, my thinking has been greatly influenced by 3 Humanities degrees at 2 of the most Left-leaning institutions in the US–Berkeley and Wisconsin) that our current economic situation forces one to consider the benefit of concrete, practical instruction vs. learning for learning’s sake. When I arrived in NYC ten years ago, I could not find employment in corporate America with my degree though I could read, analyze, and write well. I, too, questioned the benefit of what I studied if I did not pursue a career in academia which, was geographically limiting. Maybe with a few stats courses or computers I’d be more “marketable”. But school was fun and I learning many poems in Portuguese that I can add to blogs and websites.