Union College physics professor Chad Orzel has some choice words for academics who not only know next to nothing about math and science--but wear their ignorance as a badge of pride:

Intellectuals and academics are just assumed to have some background knowledge of the arts, and not knowing those things can count against you. Ignorance of math and science is no obstacle, though. I have seen tenured professors of the humanities say--in public faculty discussions, no less--"I'm just no good at math," without a trace of shame. There is absolutely no expectation that Intellectuals know even basic math.

Ignorance of math can even be a source of a perverse sort of pride ....students seeking to avoid math or science classes can expect to get a sympathetic hearing from much of the academy, where the grousing of physics majors is written off as whining by nerds who badly need to expand their narrow minds.

In fairness, it's worth noting that some academics are against mandatory liberal arts instruction for science majors, and so are consistent in allowing the educated to avoid some subjects. But the avoidance of math and science is a common and accepted part of many core curricula, and this attitude gets my back up.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I think the lack of respect for math and science is one of the largest unacknowledged problems in today's society. And it starts in the academy--somehow, we have moved to a place where people can consider themselves educated while remaining ignorant of remarkably basic facts of math and science. If I admit an ignorance of art or music, I get sideways looks, but if I argue for taking a stronger line on math and science requirements, I'm being unreasonable. The arts are essential, but Math Is Hard, and I just need to accept that not everybody can handle it.

Someone somewhere--perhaps even on this blog!--is going to say that Orzel is a self-important catastrophist and that it really does not make sense to blame those poor math-challenged, absent-minded humanists for a problem that might better be pinned on the usual suspects, the leaders academics love to hate. So let's just skip that step and talk about how it is the duty of college professors to embody an ideal of intellectual inquiry, awareness, curiosity, and ongoing learning; about how that requires a humbleness about what one does not know as well as a sober firmness about what one does know; and about how, within that obligation, a grandiose dismissal of entire fields of knowledge--as too hard, or too obscure, or whatever--such that the person doing the dismissing somehow elevates his or her academic cred with disciplinary colleagues, is way, way, way wrong. It sets a devastating example for students--and it does have an effect on the intellectual viability of our nation.

What I'd love to see: Faculty members actively embodying the ideal of liberal education that they are supposed to be delivering to students. They should be taking the odd class themselves, not just snuggling up to their disciplines and getting ever more over-specialized and, in the broad scheme of things, intellectually irrelevant. We have a situation now where, even within departments, academics tend not to be able to talk to one another, or to grasp one another's work. In an English department, you may have a scholar of women's literature who has never actually read Chaucer, or a medievalist who knows nothing about American literature. And some of that's inevitable--but it's a shame, and it shouldn't be cultivated as a positive good.

Picture an academic setting where faculty members are encouraged--perhaps expected--to continue to enlarge their understanding as well as to focus it. There is time built in to allow them, at regular intervals, to audit courses--not just or necessarily within their disciplines, but beyond them. The expectation would be that individual scholars would always be learning, always be pursuing new areas of knowledge and new understanding. An English professor, for example, might do well to take some math and science courses, just as science professors might benefit from a Shakespeare course. I think it would be great fun for everyone involved--and that it could have immense benefits, not just for individual academics, but also for the culture of academe itself.

Fun to think about, anyhow.