> art of listening to music (that was an awesome class!)

So you spent several hundreds/thousands of either your own or the state's money to learn the "art of listening to music". Would you say you got your/their money's worth?

> have an intelligent conversation about many aspects of world history and culture

In other countries, that purpose is served by high school (I think the US might be better off fixing high school, instead of pushing everyone thru CC).