This is hilarious, and food for thought.

My problem with Ann Althouse’s thesis is that she seems to want schools to churn out good little corporate drones who will easily slot into working positions. To the extent she wants schools to teach analytical skills and comprehension, I’m with her all the way. But there’s something Calvinistic in her post, an attitude of doing pleasurable things on your own time, and your own time only, that really sets my teeth on edge. Speaking for myself, I have probably learned as much that was truly useful from literature as from any nonfiction sources. And if you knew me in school, you would have seen a big-time science geek, not a lit major.

Tristero really is on to something in his tongue-in-cheek proposal that schools teach music and music only. Study after study has shown that arts programs teach students better and more useful skills, including social skills, than anything else. Unfortunately, dreary wonks with Ann Althouse attitudes seem to be in charge of school funding, and arts programs (What? You can’t get a job doing art or music!) are always the first things cut. Sigh.