Humanists under the hood
TOM AND RAY MAGLIOZZI (a.k.a. the Tappet brothers, Click and Clack), the East Cambridge-raised hosts of NPR's "Car Talk," have many pet peeves -- including French cars, drivers using cell phones, and SUVs. But they're particularly tough on undergrad callers who admit to majoring in, say, English, philosophy, or art history. Though they may disagree on the source of that grinding sound under the hood, Tom, who has a doctorate in marketing research, and Ray, a mechanic and former science teacher, concur that the liberal arts are for idiots.
But an open letter to the Tappet brothers from longtime fan "Warren, from Hartford," appearing in the May 14 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, claims the two MIT grads would flunk a good-faith emissions test. Penned by Warren Goldstein, head of the University of Hartford's history department, the letter points out that Ray's undergraduate degree was in Science and Humanities, and that Tom spent eight years inside the groves of academe. (He taught management courses at BU while earning his doctorate there.)
Goldstein wants Click and Clack to come clean and quit characterizing the liberal arts as a collection of majors that, as he puts it, "suck impressionable young people into the quicksand of youthful impracticality and adult poverty." Au contraire, Goldstein argues. The very skills that have made Click and Clack such popular radio hosts -- the ability to "evaluate evidence, construct arguments, and empathize with people" -- are ones taught in such disciplines as English, philosophy, and art history. And it's such thinking skills as these, he continues, that permit liberal-arts grads to work "at the highest level, most flexibly, and most satisfyingly, for their entire lives."
"So, Tom and Ray, why not drive home in the same car that brought you?" Goldstein demands. "She's got a few miles on her, sure . . . but she's roomy and sturdy, with classical lines and surprising power."
The Magliozzi brothers did not respond to requests for comment.
