Journal Entry #5

In discussions about the problems of academic specialization, one controversial issue has been that the shift from preindustrial to industrial economies, and the specialization that came with industrialization, created a parallel shift in academic culture.Specialization has also created many interrelated problems with English studies which include the structuring of the English studies curriculum, the narrow and insular scholarship produced within the confines of our mutually exclusive disciplines, and the devaluation of lower-division courses and the privileging of upper-division ones. In respects to the "coverage model", where students who are fully educated, have the ability to demonstrate familiarity with the whole spectrum of literature, Jackson W. Bates writer of "The Crisis in English Studies" debates that in literature the professor should confine his/her area to one author, a group of authors, or one aspect of genre. Also you ask only certain types of questions that will not focus on the difficulties and uncertainties of the subject. On the other hand David Easton of "The Division, Integration, and Transfer of Knowledge", contends "there is little space for the generalist", and shifting periods or genres means more than shifting objects of study. My own view is that I agree with both views on this issue and creating a median between these two ideas can benefit the students knowledge in English studies in the long run.