This paper argues that the current debate over humanities curricula has failed to articulate a vision for humanities education because it has turned on a liberal/conservative axis. It also contends that educators must stop debating elite versus democratic values or traditional versus contemporary problems in humanities education, and start communicating with students, colleagues, and the rest of the world. Reformers want students to take more humanities courses, but they have forgotten that what portion of the humanities proves viable and enduring depends not upon what is taught but upon what is learned. The question is raised as to how well humanities teachers are communicating their ideas when much of what they teach, students regard as simply noise. In an age in which information accumulates at an alarming pace, meaning lags far behind the information received. It is concluded that humanities teachers must be more concerned with their students needs and the applicability of what they are trying to teach. A 7-item bibliography is included. (DB)