There’s a disheartening national trend where universities, as they contend with declining student enrollment and less government funding, shift their focus and narrow their offerings so earning a degree becomes less about education and more about job preparation.
However, there is value in a liberal arts education that can’t be recorded on paper — and that many won’t even realize until long after they’ve graduated from college.
When you’re a student, the general education classes in English, foreign languages, philosophy, art and history all seem like irrelevant barriers standing between you and your degree. When you’re in your late teens and early 20s, you don’t see how studying Plato or reading Shakespeare or analyzing Renaissance art or learning about Asian history matters. Those things likely have no bearing on your future career path.
It may be true that studying the arts, humanities and “soft sciences” won’t make you a better employee down the road. But it will make you a better person, and that’s even more important.
Literature and art will teach you that while there is sometimes beauty for beauty’s sake, there is often more at play than just aesthetic appeal. They will teach you to stand in someone else’s shoes and view the world through someone else’s eyes; to have empathy and compassion. You will learn to note the significance of what is said and shown — and what is not. They will teach you answers are not always right or wrong, black or white; sometimes the answer lies in the foggy place between. More than one thing can be true at the same time — even disparate, contradictory things.
Philosophy teaches you about the unspoken, underlying rules of our societies — the patterns of thought and behavior that have influenced culture and shaped power structures for millennia. It will teach you to recognize how schools of thought impact our world: If you can name it, you can know it; and if you know it, you can see it in action all around you.
History and anthropology will teach you about what has come before, so you can better understand what is happening now and what will come in the future. They will teach you how even the smallest events can have long-lasting impacts. They will show you how humanity has changed and evolved — and how we haven’t. And — particularly at the collegiate level — they will teach you things you have never heard of before and likely never would have otherwise.
The so-called “arts” aspect of a liberal arts education actually teaches you critical thinking: how to dive beneath the surface of what you see and hear; to consider the why and how, not just the what; to assess for veracity and to synthesize information to draw supported conclusions; and how to navigate in a world that increasingly sees you as a commodity.
So no, a liberal arts education won’t necessarily make you a better worker. But it will make you are more well-rounded, empathetic and analytical person. Though it may take years for you to see the value in that, we promise your liberal arts education will more than pay for itself in the future.
