When the going gets tough,the tough take accounting.When the
job market worsens,many students calculate they can't major
to English or history.They have to study something that boosts
their prospects of landing a job.
The data show that as students have increasingly shouldered
the ever-rising cost of tuition,they have defected from the
study of the humanities and toward applied science and hard
skills that they bet will lead to employment.In other words,
a college education is more and more seen as a means for economic
betterment rather than a means for human betterment.
This is trend that is likely to persist and even accelerate.
Over the next few years,as labor markets struggle,the
humanities will probably continue their long slide in
succession.There already has been nearly 50 percent decline in the
portion of liberal arts majors over the past generation,
and it is logical to think that the trend is bound to continue
or even accelerate.Once the dominant pillars of university life
,the humanities now play little roles when students take
their college tours.These days,labs are more vivid and compelling than libraries.
Here,please allow me to stand up for and promote the true
value that the humanities add to people's lives.Since ancient
times,people have speculated about the mystery of those inner
forces that drive some people to greatness and others to
self-destruction.This inner drive has been called many things
over the centuries.The famous psychologist,Sigmund Freud,
called it the unconscious mind or,more familiarly,instinct.
From the beginning of time,this inner aspect of our being,
this drive that can be constructive or destructive,has captured
our imagination.The stories of this amazing struggle have formed the basis
of cultures the world over.Historians,architects,this inner struggle
in the form of story,music,myth,painting,architecture,sculpture,
landscape and traditions.These men and women developed artistic
languages that work from ancient time,the very foundation of
civilization,forms the basis of study of the humanities.
Studying the humanities improves our ability to read and
write.No matter what we do in life,we will have a huge advantage
if we can read complex ideas and understand their meaning.
We will have a bright career if we are the person in the
office who can write a clear and elegant analysis of those ideas.