Calling for valuing literature precisely because literature is *not* a job title, because it enables us to question and challenge–rather than easily move forward in–our world, goes against the larger, insidious expectation that education is primarily job training.

I completely agree with you, by the way, that literature should neither be read nor taught in terms of some future job value, but rather in terms of its value for illuminating and questioning human conditions, for thinking. But this is an argument based on difference. And on valuing difference. And we certainly could do with better, stronger language in which to articulate the values of that difference, if we are going to make headway in these discussions about why literature matters with an audience beyond those who already think it does.