Enough with trashing the liberal arts. Stop being stupid(washingtonpost.com)
washingtonpost.com
Enough with trashing the liberal arts. Stop being stupid
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/03/05/enough-with-trashing-the-liberal-arts-stop-being-stupid/
2 comments
Upvoting to encourage discussion.
The problem isn't that the liberal arts are completely without value--and anybody making that particular argument is a fool. The problem is that there is increasingly a huge gap between the sort of work one can get with the proper initial credentials and the work you can get without...and the people who can get, say, a development or engineering job without a STEM degree could do the same without a liberal arts degree and they would probably be better off monetarily for forgoing one.
If you aren't studying something that has a clear economic offramp, you are literally just giving money away to institutions who are happy to scalp you. It is pretty damned cheap to run liberal arts programs compared with good engineering programs, and there is plenty of competition for professorships regardless of field--there is probably no greater way of minting money than to fleece these students by offering those classes.
There's one part of the article that leaps out at me as really questionable:
"Not a single American student, however, will be indemnified from the things that make life hard by the mastery of facts on a test or a big salary. Difficulties come our way from both personal circumstances and the inevitable unfairness of an imperfect society."
Having a lot of money really does filter out a lot of stupid shit that could otherwise ruin your life or grind you into depression. Sure, there's still the everyday ennui to deal with, but if you've never consoled yourself with expensive food, booze, partying, shopping, medicine, therapy, or any of the other ways to use money to rent (if not buy) happiness, you should give it a shot sometime. It's pretty great.
One day I hope to have that kind of money to spare again. :|
The problem isn't that the liberal arts are completely without value--and anybody making that particular argument is a fool. The problem is that there is increasingly a huge gap between the sort of work one can get with the proper initial credentials and the work you can get without...and the people who can get, say, a development or engineering job without a STEM degree could do the same without a liberal arts degree and they would probably be better off monetarily for forgoing one.
If you aren't studying something that has a clear economic offramp, you are literally just giving money away to institutions who are happy to scalp you. It is pretty damned cheap to run liberal arts programs compared with good engineering programs, and there is plenty of competition for professorships regardless of field--there is probably no greater way of minting money than to fleece these students by offering those classes.
There's one part of the article that leaps out at me as really questionable:
"Not a single American student, however, will be indemnified from the things that make life hard by the mastery of facts on a test or a big salary. Difficulties come our way from both personal circumstances and the inevitable unfairness of an imperfect society."
Having a lot of money really does filter out a lot of stupid shit that could otherwise ruin your life or grind you into depression. Sure, there's still the everyday ennui to deal with, but if you've never consoled yourself with expensive food, booze, partying, shopping, medicine, therapy, or any of the other ways to use money to rent (if not buy) happiness, you should give it a shot sometime. It's pretty great.
One day I hope to have that kind of money to spare again. :|
STEM training = literacy for the jobs we have now
Liberal arts training = big picture training for innovation that we have yet to do.
Remember this John Adams quote:
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
Education has moved in this direction, but our economy has not innovated alongside it to make work for them.