Great short NPR piece, "Lax Education In Humanities, Social Sciences Spark Outcry,"
http://www.npr.org/2013/06/20/193762879/report-raises-alarms-about-humanities-social-sciences-education?ft=1&f=
and The New York Times, "Humanities Committee Sounds an Alarm":
"A new national corps of 'master teachers' trained in the humanities and social sciences and increased support for research in 'endangered' liberal arts subjects are among the recommendations of a major report to be delivered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
"The report comes amid concern about low humanities enrollments and worries that the Obama administration’s emphasis on science education risks diminishing a huge source of the nation’s intellectual strength. Requested by a bipartisan group of legislators and scheduled to be distributed to every member of Congress, it is intended as a rallying cry against the entrenched idea that the humanities and social sciences are luxuries that employment-minded students can ill afford."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/arts/humanities-committee-sounds-an-alarm.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130619&_r=1&
Here is a link to the executive summary of the report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: http://www.humanitiescommission.org/_pdf/hss_executivesummary.pdf
Also, the full study may be found here: http://www.humanitiescommission.org/_pdf/hss_report.pdf
"A general education is just as important today, and it is just as clear that it must include the humanities and the social sciences. The humanities—including the study of languages, literature, history, jurisprudence, philosophy, comparative religion, ethics, and the arts—are disciplines of memory and imagination, telling us where we have been and helping us envision where we are going. The social sciences—including anthropology, archaeology, economics, political science, sociology, and psychology—are disciplines of behavioral, interpersonal, and organizational processes, employing empirical and scientific methods to reveal patterns in the lives of real people. "
