While current graduates know how to assist with swallowing problems, they are not able to talk to literate adults because they know pathetically little about history, the arts and life. I have encountered so many so-called language clinicians who know pathetically little about language. Indeed, we are not educating Speech-Language Pathologists or clinical scientists. We are training speech and swallowing therapists and we begin this training far too early. In other genuine professions, there is no pre-professional education.
Law schools insist that students major in liberal arts, medicine in natural and physical sciences.
Let us stop pretending that is important to teach courses in clinical methodologies at the undergraduate level. Further, it is unethical. At what point to we dignify our conviction that we want professionals who are literate and scientific. Professionals who can read, write, speak, think, analyze, and problem solve. If we do, we must eliminate undergraduate pre-professional education.