Who is Going to Save Humanities?
And who is going to protect the progress of human innovation?
The study of liberal arts and humanities was once much more respected than it is today. And for anyone who was in school in the last 20 years, you probably know and agree with this yourself. Things are not what they used to be.
In November 2021, The Hechinger Report announced that college graduates who studied in the field of humanities (English, history, philosophy, religion, foreign languages, ethnic studies and communications) have lowered in numbers for the eighth consecutive year. Using info gathered from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the report noted that “Fewer than one in 10 college graduates obtained humanities degrees in 2020, down 25 percent since 2012.” Meanwhile, the number of graduates studying business in 2020 exceeded 430,000, measuring a 60% increase over 20 years of postsecondary education data. (Hechinger Report, 2021)
One might suggest that it is merely optics, or poor marketing that is to be held accountable for the way the study of the liberal arts and humanities is viewed today. For some reason, fewer people seem eager to perceive the value of these fields than ever before, or at least since in the last 20 years or so. Then again, the world has changed a lot in the last 20 years. The rise of social media and digital marketing has impacted societal norms in major ways, including the ways in which children interact with their parents and their peers, as well as the ways in which they engage new information and opportunities to learn.
Mr. John Agresto, described recently in the Wall Street Journal as a “lifelong champion of liberal-arts education,” made a statement regarding his observations of how students’ attitudes have changed over the years. “They have gone from docile to uninterested to fiercely combative,” he said. Mr. Agresto served for five decades as a professor and an administrator during his career in education. (Wall Street Journal, 2022)
Arguments for and against the study of the liberal arts and humanities really go the distance. According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, life was deemed as generally satisfactory for 90 percent of humanities graduates in 2019. The same publication reported that humanities graduates generally make less than business and other STEM graduates. Even with both these factors in mind, the publication notes that a rise in technology use and its impact on the reading habits of newer generations may have a considerable role to play in the decline of new humanities students, a field of study that requires a lot of reading. (American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2021)
Ultimately, the fate of the study of humanities is in our hands. And the time to make a change is now.
At SEA, we believe that the study of the liberal arts and humanities, and the respect thereof, is vital to the progress of human innovation. Think Apple. Think Twitter 2.0, or Disney+. Think Franz Kafka, Marina Abramovic or Rupi Kaur. Think Beyoncé, Ye, Lizzo or Kim Kardashian. Or maybe just think about yourself, and all the ideas driven and inspired by what you’ve learned in your own studies of the liberal arts and humanities through the years, whether by institutionalised education or independent means.
The study of English, history, philosophy, religion, foreign languages, ethnic studies and communications drives curiosity and conversation in ways that are unique to the condition of being human – filled with passion, desire, perspective and emotion. As Mr. Agresto so eloquently put it, “no matter what you want to become… the liberal arts have something to teach you.” (Wall Street Journal, 2022)
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Recently, we published an article that touched on the current plight of the public and nonpublic school system in the United States. Unending as the list of plight-related woes may seem, our ultimate goal is to highlight the very practical courses of action available to parents, community leaders and local school authorities to help remedy the adverse situations we are facing when it comes to educating our children.
As promised, here is a shortlist of viable options for improving the education of the next generation of world leaders. This list includes resources to fill in the gap of Social Emotional Learning experienced by most students, as well as core learning subjects such as English, History, Mathematics and Science.