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LV Tiantian, a graduate student majoring in ethics at Jiangsu University in Zhenjiang, has spent years reading Aristotle and Plato．She has debated with classmates about the meaning of “happiness” and in written papers about the role of morality in society．But as LV prepares to enter the professional world, she's finding that her background isn't getting her a lot of job interviews．“Employers do not seem to value the theories and philosophy that we liberal arts majors have learned,”said LV, 24．“I earned far fewer interview chances than those majoring in more practical subjects in science and technology．”
According to a 2009 survey conducted by Zhongqing Shijia Survey Net and China Enterprise News, science graduates enjoy higher employment rates and salaries than liberal arts students do．Things aren't much different overseas．The New York Times reports that job listings for professors in English, literature and foreign languages dropped 21 percent for the 2008-2009 academic year－the biggest decline in 34 years．As a result, some American educators are calling for universities to abandon the “old Ivory Tower view of liberal education”．They want to put more emphasis on the practical and economic aspects of education．
Chinese educational experts tend to agree up to a point．But abandoning emphasis on the humanities altogether, they say, brings great risk．“The liberal arts do not generate any tangible(實體的)material wealth, but it does convey social values．And it passes spiritual heritage from one generation to another,”said Niu Dakui, an expert on education at Beijing Normal University．“If the humanities are discarded, our youngsters will lose their way．”
Anthony T．Kronman, a professor of law at Yale, goes even further．He argues that the greed, irresponsibility and fraud that put the world in the current financial mess will only get worse without a new emphasis on the humanities．In his view, this is the time to re-examine “what we care about and what we value”－something that the humanities” are extremely well-equipped to address”．
How this debate plays out may very well determine the future of Chinese high school education．Some people want high school students to be able to specialize in science during their high school years．Others think they should get a more rounded education with a substantial number of hours in the arts and humanities．
