I belong to the older group. Now 85. Spent 35 years as a college professor retiring as an Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1997. Don’t remember having many students involved in protest, at least not on the technical side of campus. They left that up to the arts and humanities people. Still, many from the engineering side went on to become “Titans of Industry.” People in positions of power but lacking in liberal education. Time and again I listen to my students debate which humanities courses to take. Not because the saw the courses as an opportunity of learning but instead as a waste of time. That failure is not unique to engineering, and I see it as a near impossible problem to solve. A kid trying to develop an integral of some third order differential equation before an exam in the morning has little time to consider much else.

Looking forward to the next article but doubt it will solve the problem. Face it. The human mind has it’s limits and, as a consequence, we program ourselves not to listen to those we don’t agree with, understand or appreciate. The outcome is often sad, but it just seems the less complicated way to go.