There has been a worrying trend in recent years to lower the barriers to entry in many academic fields. While this trend is present in several fields, I will mostly focus on the field of Classical Studies, where much of my knowledge lies. The softening of requirements in the field has had, and will continue to have, dire consequences. It is not too late to save Classical Studies, but quick action is necessary to do so.
Before I explain some of the reasoning behind why the barriers to entry are being lowered for Classical Studies, it’s important to understand exactly what is being changed in the first place. The largest change that has occurred is the removal of language requirements in the study of Classics at an undergraduate level. Many universities and colleges have changed their Classics majors, concentrations, and courses of study so that not even an elementary knowledge of Greek or Latin is required for any student to achieve a degree in Classics from the granting institution.
Why are barriers to entry being lessened?
There are a variety of explanations given as to why the requirements for studying the Classics are being softened. One of the most frequent explanations I see is that requirements are being reduced so that more minority students can study the Classics, thereby diversifying the field. This justification, however, reeks of the too-often displayed (proudly I might add) soft bigotry of low expectations. This type of bigotry exists in a variety of different ways today, but in the case of Classics, the assumption that minority students will simply be unable to learn Latin or Greek is worryingly common.
Several articles, including one written by a Princeton student in the university paper, say that minority students are disadvantaged when it comes to the field of Classics because the high schools most minority students go to don’t offer Latin or Greek, and that the majority of students who go to high schools offering those languages are white. Though I am unsure of the actual statistics behind the racial makeup of high schools offering Latin and Greek, I am willing to assume that these claims are true to some extent. However, just because a student is unable to take any Greek or Latin courses in high school does not mean that he or she is unable to be a successful student of either language in a university setting.
The high school I went to (a public one) offered Latin, but I was uninterested in Latin at the time, and my school certainly did not offer Greek. When my interest in the Classics grew as a first-year student at my university, I simply chose to begin learning the languages. Although neither Greek nor Latin were required to major in Classics at my university, I was able to achieve an advanced level of Greek and an intermediate level of Latin, levels I am sure I would have been able to exceed had I chosen to study them during the summer months, and had I not missed a semester of language instruction while finishing up my second major (German) in Freiburg, Germany. Success in Greek and Latin without prior knowledge is not something unique to me, of course. A friend of mine from college started the same way I did with no prior knowledge of Greek or Latin and achieved an advanced level in both languages in addition to earning a concurrent degree in Physics. Success in a subject at college without prior knowledge from high school is almost always possible. It simply takes focus and commitment.
In addition to the aim of diversifying the field, “saving the Classics from extinction” is another often-stated goal of those in favor of easing requirements for Classics. This goal is admirable and one I wholeheartedly support. However, decreasing the difficulty of the field will not save the Classics, a fact which will become clear as I explain the effects of the field’s new accessibility.
Why is making the field more accessible an issue?
The simple fact is that removing language requirements from Classics courses of study waters down the field. Classical Philology becomes essentially just a history or philosophy major. The languages are the core of the field, and an essential part to understanding the literature and thoughts of the time. The removal of language instruction kills the unique aspect of this field, which to me leads to its death Instead of producing graduates who have a deeper understanding of Greek and Roman literature and the beauty of Greek and Latin, the lack of language requirements produces half-baked Classics majors who know a few Greek myths and try to convince themselves that reading erotic fanfiction about Achilles and Patroclus is “studying.”
Another negative effect of de-emphasizing language is that there comes an over-saturation of the field now that the Classics are more accessible. An over-saturation of mediocre students leads to a drastic decrease in the quality of thought put out by these graduates, and certainly lowers the public’s perception of the field. It also leads to too many students going to grad school in a field they probably should not be in. That is a topic for future discussion, however…
What should be done?
There are a few changes that could be implemented to make the field more appealing to new students overall without removing the language requirements.
The university I attended requires first-year students to take a “freshman seminar” that is supposed to bring new students up to speed in terms of what kind of writing and textual interrogation will be required in college. One of these seminars is called “Great Books of The Ancient World” (also affectionately known as “HUMA” after its original designation in the academic catalogue). The course offers a survey of works from the field of Classics, and taking that seminar was really what propelled me (and several close friends of mine) into the field head-first. If more universities allowed, or better yet required, students to take a course covering some of the ancient world’s best works, I am certain that enrollment in Classics courses around the country would dramatically increase.
Another change that would boost enrollment in Classics courses is somewhat less easy to implement because it would be a change in how society views college in general. The perception of what value a university provides has changed drastically over the past few decades. Right now, people mostly look at college as training for certain jobs, which is why enrollment in STEM fields has skyrocketed. This change in perception is also something I will cover in a future post here, so I won’t go into too much more depth now.
There is an argument to be made that retaining language requirements would decrease the total enrollment numbers such that the Classics departments at various universities and colleges wouldn’t be able to support themselves. This seems at first to be a reasonable concern, but turns out to be less of an issue than one might suspect. Take for a moment a completely different field, such as Physics. I dare say that enrollment in Physics, and STEM majors in general, is much higher than it used to be. Physics has certain barriers to entry that are simply immovable. You must be highly competent in various types of math to grasp many if not all of the concepts taught at the field’s higher levels. Strong barriers to entry don’t make a field impossible to get into, they simply raise the overall quality of that field as a whole because each specialist must have a certain level of acumen in the hard skills required to succeed.
The fact that Physics, as well as every other STEM major, continually sees high enrollment makes it clear that the lack of enrollment in a field is not necessarily determined by its barriers to entry. In the case of the Classics, the hemorrhaging of students could easily be stanched by the suggestions I laid out in the first half of this section.
To sum up
While there are some major issues plaguing Classical Studies today, I have no doubt that they can be resolved over time, though it may take some dramatic changes in society’s perception of the value a university provides.
If you’re currently a university student and you’d like to get more involved in the field, I encourage you to take some Greek or Latin (I’m sure the professors would be delighted to welcome you). If you are not in college, there are several good edX courses on topics within the field I could recommend (among other resources).
— Hubertus