... light-weight subjects ... dross ... That depends on what you mean by "light-weight" and "dross" - they're not well-defined concepts, and you'll get a different set of answers depending on who you ask. I'm extremely dubious about the validity of management and business studies (it all seems like nebulous, hand-wavy nonsense with little connection to what it purports to describe) whereas I think classics should be more widely studied, but I suspect I'm in the minority there on both counts.
Jack Cohen said something in a talk I went to a few years ago: Most people think that the end product of a PhD is a neatly typeset, bound thesis on the shelf in the library. But it isn't, the real end product of a PhD is the person who's done the PhD.
And I think it's the same with any programme of education: the real point of studying isn't to learn a specific corpus of facts which may or may not be relevant to something the general public consider important; it's how it changes the student, what it does to the way they see the world around them, how it enhances their ability for critical thought. Which benefits all of us: god knows this country, this world needs more people who think carefully about stuff.
For example, the five years of Latin I did at school have had no direct practical or economic benefit to me, but they enhanced my appreciation of language, my understanding of grammar, and have made the world a richer and more splendid place for me as a result. The same goes for the various texts they made me study for GCSE English Literature, even though I completely hated it at the time and really didn't get along with the teacher (Mr Charters).
no subject
Yes, absolutely.
... light-weight subjects ... dross ...
That depends on what you mean by "light-weight" and "dross" - they're not well-defined concepts, and you'll get a different set of answers depending on who you ask. I'm extremely dubious about the validity of management and business studies (it all seems like nebulous, hand-wavy nonsense with little connection to what it purports to describe) whereas I think classics should be more widely studied, but I suspect I'm in the minority there on both counts.
Jack Cohen said something in a talk I went to a few years ago: Most people think that the end product of a PhD is a neatly typeset, bound thesis on the shelf in the library. But it isn't, the real end product of a PhD is the person who's done the PhD.
And I think it's the same with any programme of education: the real point of studying isn't to learn a specific corpus of facts which may or may not be relevant to something the general public consider important; it's how it changes the student, what it does to the way they see the world around them, how it enhances their ability for critical thought. Which benefits all of us: god knows this country, this world needs more people who think carefully about stuff.
For example, the five years of Latin I did at school have had no direct practical or economic benefit to me, but they enhanced my appreciation of language, my understanding of grammar, and have made the world a richer and more splendid place for me as a result. The same goes for the various texts they made me study for GCSE English Literature, even though I completely hated it at the time and really didn't get along with the teacher (Mr Charters).