Conservatives, Please Stop Trashing the Liberal Arts
Christopher J. Scalia
Dismissing the liberal arts seems to have become a litmus test for conservative politicians.
Earlier this month, addressing the issue of student debt, Sen. Marco Rubio joked that students ought to know in advance whether its worth borrowing $40,000 to be a Greek philosophy major. Because the market for Greek philosophers is tight. His remarks echo North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, who in 2013 mocked liberal-arts courses and said, I dont want to subsidize [a major] thats not going to get someone a job. Gov. Rick Scott of Florida and former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas have passed legislation encouraging students to major in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines rather than the liberal arts.
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A recent study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce did show that unemployment rates for recent humanities and liberal-arts majors are higher than for, say, biology and life-science students. But the difference is not great: In 2011-12 the rates were 8.4% and 7.4%, respectively. The unemployment rate for recent computer-science, statistics and mathematics graduates was 8.3%. So while humanities and liberal-arts graduates are not making out like bandits, the difference between them and their STEM peers is exaggerated.
Income data provide an even stronger rebuttal to the stereotypes. The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems and the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that humanities and social-sciences majors earn more right after college than students majoring in physical sciences, natural sciences and math.
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Income and employment are surely important, but financial reward is not all that a college education offers to student and the state. By perpetuating this notion, conservatives ignore a long tradition that places the liberal arts in the center of a thriving society and an informed citizenry.
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The liberal arts, Jefferson recognized, have a practical value that has nothing to do with direct economic benefits: They are linked to the vitality of a commonwealth and the survival of a free people. Its easy to see how such knowledge could help a politician, but Jefferson encouraged a general education for the people at large to protect themselves from politicians.
Considered in light of Jeffersons argument, Mr. Rubios choice of Greek philosophy as a useless major seems especially inapt.
Apart from specific historical and philosophical knowledge, the liberal arts also provide general intellectual tools that reinforce democracy. Liberal-arts professors use the phrase critical thinking skills so often that our students could turn it into a drinking game. But we do so because the term conveys a serious and valuable idea: Students who read and comprehend difficult works, engage with sophisticated ideas, and express themselves clearly are well-suited to contribute to a representative government. Such a citizenry is valued by the leftspeak truth to power!but also by the right, which distrusts centralized power and promotes a stronger civil society.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/christopher-scalia-conservatives-please-stop-trashing-the-liberal-arts-1427494073
Mr. Scalia is an associate professor of English at the University of Virginias College at Wise, a public liberal arts college.
TexasTowelie
(112,460 posts)However, that does not make me employable. If there is a shortage of employers that are not willing to extend an employment offer because they think that they might have to pay too much or that the job would not offer enough satisfaction to keep a prospect with a company, then it doesn't matter what degree you have.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)the jobs that might have worked in the past are now gone from the US, or, there are few available. And, in many cases, wages have been slashed as companies source non-US labor to get the cheapest labor they can find.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Irritated that their kids don't want to go to business school and get an MBA. My father was the same way after I graduated HS.