Why So Many Students Are Skipping The English Major

English did not fall because a bunch of conservatives trashed the humanities as a den of political correctness. It fell because the dominant schools of thought stopped speaking about the truth of literature. Students stopped caring about literature because the professors stopped believing in its promises of revelation and delight.

Over the past ten years, there has been a 20% drop in undergraduate English majors. The job prospects for English professors in the same timeframe have declined by more than 50%. Apparently there is a full blown crisis in the English department, and there was a long read that explored exactly why it has been happening. The main reason proposed by writer Mark Bauerlein in our “intellectually miserable century” may be the endless interpretations of literary work that avoid admitting there is such a thing as literary “truth.”

I’m not sure I agree with that assessment, but the point is there are fewer students who believe the English major is a worthwhile degree to earn and that’s a shame. As a former English major myself, I think it remains an underrated choice. We could definitely use more people with the communications and writing skills of English majors.