Browsing the New York Times site today, I ran across this article and it really set me off. For those of you who don't like reading articles or are lazy, the gist of it is that humanities programs are getting cut increasingly under economic pressure in favor of career-oriented college programs. The rhetoric against them is naturally that they don't provide students with any marketable skills. They are thus forced to justify why they're worthwhile and to prove that students with a humanities background have valuable skills as a part of the workforce.
This hit a nerve for me not only because I'm a humanities major with no marketable skills to speak of, but also because of how similar it is to the problems we've been having at the Gargoyle recently. A few of the harder-nosed members of the Board have argued throughout the past year that the Garg has to prove itself financially viable or risk being eliminated. Now I understand perfectly well that Student Pubs is a business and that in this economy it needs every dollar it can get, but the Gargoyle's value as a educational mechanism for its staff far outweighs the small amount of money it costs to keep it running.
What the Gargoyle, and college humor magazines everywhere, have done for the past century is train the next generation of entertainers in the delicate art of delivering a punchline, spinning a yarn, and crafting an image. The humanities play a very similar role--they teach young adults how to be actual adults. They demonstrate and explain the intricacies, responsibilities, benefits, and downfalls of humanity. They teach you how to pull as much value out of life as you can. Sure, you can tell a joke without having been formally taught how to, just as you can have a belief system without having taken Philosophy. The question is really about quality.
It's easy for the financially-minded people of the world to dismiss this, because there's not often a dollar value put on a worker's ability to think critically or communicate elegantly. A system based solely on economic profitability certainly favors sheer productivity and practical skill in the short term. But it's not a model that can last long. The humanities majors of the world are the engines driving cultural and ideological innovation. They're the people who point out hypocrisy and inconsistency, who remind us of our follies and our strengths. They are key in keeping society fresh and forward-looking, whether as entertainers, artists, journalists, historians, politicians, or just that witty guy in the next cubicle who criticizes the boss.
In the long term, people who have been taught to think critically are just as important as engineers to a healthy economy. Unfortunately, this is something people will only fully realize once we're without them. The humor training that humor magazines provide is critical considering America's current position in the world. More than ever, our main industrial export is entertainment. Somewhere out there, the next great comedian is writing for a humor mag and the next great actor is majoring in Performing Arts. That is, unless someone convinced them that Mechanical Engineering is a much more practical idea.
This hit a nerve for me not only because I'm a humanities major with no marketable skills to speak of, but also because of how similar it is to the problems we've been having at the Gargoyle recently. A few of the harder-nosed members of the Board have argued throughout the past year that the Garg has to prove itself financially viable or risk being eliminated. Now I understand perfectly well that Student Pubs is a business and that in this economy it needs every dollar it can get, but the Gargoyle's value as a educational mechanism for its staff far outweighs the small amount of money it costs to keep it running.
What the Gargoyle, and college humor magazines everywhere, have done for the past century is train the next generation of entertainers in the delicate art of delivering a punchline, spinning a yarn, and crafting an image. The humanities play a very similar role--they teach young adults how to be actual adults. They demonstrate and explain the intricacies, responsibilities, benefits, and downfalls of humanity. They teach you how to pull as much value out of life as you can. Sure, you can tell a joke without having been formally taught how to, just as you can have a belief system without having taken Philosophy. The question is really about quality.
It's easy for the financially-minded people of the world to dismiss this, because there's not often a dollar value put on a worker's ability to think critically or communicate elegantly. A system based solely on economic profitability certainly favors sheer productivity and practical skill in the short term. But it's not a model that can last long. The humanities majors of the world are the engines driving cultural and ideological innovation. They're the people who point out hypocrisy and inconsistency, who remind us of our follies and our strengths. They are key in keeping society fresh and forward-looking, whether as entertainers, artists, journalists, historians, politicians, or just that witty guy in the next cubicle who criticizes the boss.
In the long term, people who have been taught to think critically are just as important as engineers to a healthy economy. Unfortunately, this is something people will only fully realize once we're without them. The humor training that humor magazines provide is critical considering America's current position in the world. More than ever, our main industrial export is entertainment. Somewhere out there, the next great comedian is writing for a humor mag and the next great actor is majoring in Performing Arts. That is, unless someone convinced them that Mechanical Engineering is a much more practical idea.
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