Are non-Yalies allowed to weigh in on controversies at Yale? Well, I’m finna. Plus, it’s kind of a National Review right — and rite. (I had so many lunches and dinners with WFB’s college classmates and fellow alumni, I feel like I graduated from that university around midcentury.)
At Yale, they require English majors to take Major English Poets. These include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and other squares. English majors are now protesting the requirement. In a petition to Yale’s department, they say that the requirement “creates a culture that is especially hostile to students of color.” Indeed, they call for the abolition of Major English Poets, in favor of “literatures relating to gender, race, sexuality, ableism, and ethnicity.” At the end, they say, “It is your responsibility as educators to listen to student voices. We have spoken. We are speaking. Pay attention.”
The English department should respond: “We are speaking. Pay attention. Grow up or get out.”
P.S. Beware that word “literatures” — as also “musics.” They signal sophistry (and they are ugly words to boot, especially “musics”). (I’ll make an exception for Peter Schickele, that master player with words, as well as notes: “All musics are created equal.”)
P.P.S. Have Yale Italian majors weighed in on Dante yet? No good? How about Spanish majors? Nix to Cervantes? Have astronomy students rejected the solar system? Etc.
P.P.P.S. I had occasion to quote WFB the other day. (I always do. One always does.) “I majored in Keynesianism at Yale.”
Madness among English Majors at Yale University