I just read an article in the NYTimes, “In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Work“
But in this new era of lengthening unemployment lines and shrinking university endowments, questions about the importance of the humanities in a complex and technologically demanding world have taken on new urgency. Previous economic downturns have often led to decreased enrollment in the disciplines loosely grouped under the term “humanities” — which generally include languages, literature, the arts, history, cultural studies, philosophy and religion. Many in the field worry that in this current crisis those areas will be hit hardest.
I can’t say that I haven’t thought about not becoming a humanities major and I’m totally guilty of putting money at the top of my list. I don’t come from money and there is definitely a debt I owe to my parents (you know, for allowing me to go to such an expensive school and taking out huge loans).
It’s really sad. Humanities feels like a dying art even though I go to a liberal arts school. I guess I’m in it because it’s what I’m good at. I don’t want to fail at something just because it’ll bring me top dollar. And if I fail it, there probably wouldn’t be any money coming in – ever.
The humanities continue to thrive in elite liberal arts schools. But the divide between these private schools and others is widening. Some large state universities routinely turn away students who want to sign up for courses in the humanities, Francis C. Oakley, president emeritus and a professor of the history of ideas at Williams College, reported. At the University of Washington, for example, in recent years, as many as one-quarter of the students found they were unable to get into a humanities course.
As money tightens, the humanities may increasingly return to being what they were at the beginning of the last century, when only a minuscule portion of the population attended college: namely, the province of the wealthy.
That may be unfortunate but inevitable, Mr. Kronman said. The essence of a humanities education — reading the great literary and philosophical works and coming “to grips with the question of what living is for” — may become “a great luxury that many cannot afford.”
Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing at a liberal arts school. I could have easily gone to (and saved a lot of money) a state or city school that will prepare me for a specific career as soon as I have graduated and provide me with a job. I don’t come from a home that emphasizes the whole liberal mantra of studying for the sake of studying and cultivating my knowledge so I’m blessed that my parents let me come here. There’s always a reason for everything. Plus, I have faith in this economy. Something’s going to happen…
