In Defense of: The Humanities

Edit: a reader requested links/examples to support the central theme of this post, so I've added connections to previous posts.

Given what I do for a living, I often hear parents assure me that a liberal arts university would not be appropriate for their child. Some of this stems from a misunderstanding of what liberal arts means - students may study almost any major in a liberal arts program, but they will do so in a more interdisciplinary fashion, with coursework in a broader spectrum of programs than they might have in a technically focused program.

For those who already know this about liberal arts universities and still believe their child should avoid them, the attitude is that since their child will be studying engineering or a pre-med emphasis ("pre-med" isn't a major, contrary to popular belief) or business, coursework in the social sciences and humanities is not only unnecessary, but a waste of time and money.

I was fortunate enough to end up with dual degrees in education and Spanish, and then I did a master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), a blend of pedagogy and applied linguistics, so I definitely studied in a liberal arts format. During the Recession, I sometimes asked myself if that had been a mistake - after all, I liked economics and biology in high school. Maybe business or a science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) program would have made more sense.

As I develop into my career, though, and especially given that the Recession has finally ended, I'm grateful to have been in a program that built "soft skills" like writing cogently  (and actually, a large complaint from many employers is that their college grads don't write well), genre analysis (useful in technical writing), and anthropology. I'm grateful to have read and analyzed story structure, because it has allowed to see the stories in my own life, such as the thread of my relationship with Detroit. I'm glad that not only do I speak a second language, I understand another culture to some degree. My education program focused greatly on designing lessons around objectives, which helps me evaluate activities, both within and without classrooms, for purpose and efficacy. I believe this background has allowed me to be more empathetic and structure arguments better, and to identify solutions to problems.

And I think in the long run, it will stand me in good stead as the job market changes. Technical skills, after all, are based in current procedures, and therefore may become obsolete. And though STEM has been in fashion, certain majors within it have not been guaranteeing graduates jobs at any higher rates than those with my form of academic work.

Even if I'm wrong on that, though, I've found a great deal of my humanity in the humanities. Seeing stories, relating to people's pain, knowing about social structures and history, such as this post on narrative that has helped me understand the civil rights issues of the day, in addition to a deep understanding of pedagogy, all of these have enriched my life (this link shares one realization of this) in ways that extend far, far beyond my employment situation. So I will not stop mentioning the liberal arts to families as an option. I hope that a few students find the joy there that I have (see a link to all of my posts labeled "joy").