In Defense of the (Liberal) Arts
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In Defense of the (Liberal) Arts

Your path is yours.

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In Defense of the (Liberal) Arts
Miranda Wheeler

Note: for the purposes of this article, any reference to "liberal arts" will include both liberal arts andhumanities.

Anyone majoring in the liberal arts has likely been warned that their course of study is impractical. Impassioned opinion articles are scattered across the internet insisting that such degrees might be “worthless” or at the very least, not worth the cost.

Others, however, argue that such majors have a worth far beyond what income-tests for clickbait sites can suggest , and even the source of valued skillsets.

As someone currently pursuing a double-major in Film Studies and Theatre Arts with a minor in Journalism, I’m no stranger to merciless opinion pieces, the ‘poorest return on your degree’ list, the snide comments of other people, and the concerns of loved ones fearful of the economic future for new college grads.

Despite the stigmatization of such fields, I elected to pursue them anyway.

Why?

First of all, the advice promoted by the media for lifelong career choices change drastically from decade to decade. My mother’s cohort was told to become typists if they wanted the ultimate nexus of practicality and lifelong employment. My father's was assured they'd easily excel and climb with a high school diploma alone. Clearly, that advice didn’t pan out well into the 21st century as promised.

The anti-liberal arts commentary being so heavily circulated at the moment is coming off the back of recent grads during the 2008 recession, as well as the insistence of public figures like President Obama, web articles taking note of salary, the rags-to-riches tales of app-makers and social media founders and Silicon Valley, the "starving artist" myth, increasingly publicized dissatisfaction among teachers and work traditionally associated with degrees like English or Drawing, and time-honored jokes at the expensive of "soft skills".

The arts are interwoven throughout expansive, thriving industries of which you are likely a daily consumer. Those are industries fueled by jobs that only just begin to define the vast economic impact of the arts. Whether it’s theatre, design, or entertainment, at the end of the day, each is a business. They have require unions, contract and copyright law, insurance, financing, marketing, communications, distribution, executives, and the production of content, goods, and services, just like any other industry. Each of these elements are a separate employment opportunity that draws in a number of different degrees, experiences, and personal histories.

Imagine for a moment that naysayers and critics are correct: "the available openings are hopelessly competitive", "job creation in the arts isn't matching the demand from majors", and "the instability or unpredictability is too much to take" (despite the fact that millennials job-hop whether they have to or not). While much of these comments are certainly valid, in some regions of the country more so than others, there is value in the degree itself not unlike that of any other course of study. The reality is that creative application of one's studies in an evolving employment market is work that most job seekers inevitably have to undertake, regardless of their background.

Increasingly, we see a world in which high school students, undergraduates, and even graduate and postgraduate students are finding careers that are unobvious choices for their course of study. Other professionals comment that they may be training for jobs that don’t exist yet, and likely several field changes over the course of their careers.

We are in a time with where the future of each graduate is unpredictable and unstable. Research that claims to understand and predict them often comes out in contradiction with other studies with polar conclusions, all of which appear equally valid, or completely changes before an incoming freshman can finish college.

Securing jobs prior to graduation is a difficult process for everyone. It is a time of immense anxiety and confusion about what the future holds. Even the most ambitious graduate can have gaps that last months before entering the workforce, and years of underemployment while they gain experience to enter their chosen fields in the opportunities that are available.

While it is true that several niches within STEM hold post-graduation opportunities that see ‘good’ jobs secured much faster, they are still in completion with one another for those jobs. If you’re a student who is neither interested, inspired, prepared, or even technically inclined to make it through four years of STEM education without embittered difficulty and nauseating stress, that experience doesn’t go away when you leave school and enter that field.

If you don't want something, you don't want something. You won't work as hard for it or get as much out of it as you will the field you feel born for. This may be a controversial point, but it is one within which I hold the fullest belief. Even if you’re able to pull excellent grades, accomplishments, and accolades by determination alone in spite of your lack of alignment with the topic, you are still going to be competing with those who had all that you lack (whether it be in interest, enthusiasm, or enjoy-ability of technical or mathematical aptitude). I've seen friends, community members, and untraditionally-aged students lament about how they stuck it out in pure stubbornness for prestige or ideas of success, only to express regret and often jump on change-of-career opportunities with a degree of awkwardness (and no small identity crisis) just a few years, and sometimes decades, after graduation.

Whether the "aha" moment comes from realizing that having the best job on paper won't make it bearable to get up in the morning, that making sacrifices for a job you hate becomes a final straw, or that understanding once you're in it that you're not employed with like-minded people and that a good job isn't a promise of a good and fulfilling life -- it looks with inevitability.

I by no means have any desire to discourage anyone who is in love with that work or is struggling to prove themselves in those fields within which they want to be. Rather, to point out that doing what you’re good at and what you love is as valuable as doing what draws attention and promises financial gain.

For some, the possibility that even those graduates that are grabbed right out of college with the hope of consistently excellent employment might change in coming years only serves to draft a less-than-compelling package to immerse yourself in a topic which you dread. Personally, I know what I'm good at, and where I’m highly effective. If that’s an internal understanding that has permeated every area of your life, the opinions and speculation of others on what an ideal student looks like becomes a secondary (or nonexistent) priority.

The opinion of a slideshow blogger can’t tell you who you are. All they can do is hope their own choices were for the best. The very marketing of such articles is in a misleading promise of insight into a world. In truth, a single perspective, including my own, is limited in analyzing and a future we are ultimately blind to.

As a student, you’re dishing out rapidly climbing tuition money to study something that you hope will give you a foundation to build a life and set you on a course towards a career you’ll enjoy. While some argue that’s the very reason to pursue financial stability – and, by extension, the soonest possible loan repayment – others feel that investment belongs to quality of life itself.

What's more, the "starving artist”, “would-be politician”, and “boulevard of broken dreams wash-up” are stereotypes that suggests that liberal arts students are only willing pursue their independent work in hermitage. There's a difference between studying something to cultivate a skill set and actually expecting to become the next icon of it as a self-supporting trade (i.e. Ai Weiwei or Brad Pitt or Barack Obama or James Patterson).

The argument that a college education is valuable regardless of what you study is a task for another blogger. However, there's evidence (along with a fair bit of controversy) that your degree might matter less than the specifics of coursework, work experience, networking ability and existing connections, special skills, alumni opportunities, and institutional prestige.

More importantly, your BA matters less than your graduate studies. Being multilingual, excellent with technology and computer programs, harbor excellent writing and communication skills, emotionally intelligent, interpersonally and collaboratively excellent, able to memorize and get work done effectively, punctual, and have an understanding of business and money management that frankly aren’t naturally coming out of institutions in any degree, are things you build in making yourself a brand. This is something you craft over a lifetime, along with a worldview, a set of values, an identity, and an intention. Across many of these factors, liberal arts is several steps ahead.

There's nothing practical about guaranteeing you’re going to be miserable. If that is your feeling towards a given subject, you might consider that refusing to do anything that promises regret becomes the most practical thing in the world. It amazes me what people are willing to throw away right now for what they hope they'll see in a few decades, based on the assumption that they'll be around, we'll never have a depression, they'll never have a career-ending accident, and that informal, under examined public speculation painted an infallible portrait in 2017 of guaranteed success, contentment, and wealth by 2040 or 2070. The only way to make the most informed, wise, and valuable decision is to know yourself well and to acknowledge that the choice, ultimately, is yours.


Do I imply that everyone loves the arts and that STEM is always a choice without heart, or that there's shame in taking a road for the benefits or prestige or growth opportunities despite hating it, or that no one who studies their passion struggles (or that all avoid jobs they dislike)? Of course not.

However, if the liberal arts are where you can achieve the highest grades, the greatest job satisfaction and happiness, the best professional skills in relation to your natural inclinations, built-made-obvious talent, and get the most out of your education, your faculty-student-alumni networking, productivity, and quality of life in general? That is exactly where you should be.

If not, allow yourself to be open to the road that might take you there.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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