Many argue that the humanities are useless, that they don’t have real practical value. As a humanist himself, Fish states “[w]hat then do they do? They don’t do anything, if by “do” is meant bring about effects in the world. And if they don’t bring about effects in the world they cannot be justified except in relation to the pleasure they give to those who enjoy them”. Should scholars study humanities? While studying humanities doesn’t have much practical value, it is still a necessary field of study. Studying the human experience from different perspectives, allows humans to understand the entire scope of what it means to be human. Of course, there is no single answer and probably no answer. Instead there are a series of ideas that try to generate some insight into the human experience. People interested in the humanities do know that if they do major in a field in the humanities their career opportunities will be limited. Although supposedly the “liberal arts” education allows one to adapt to any field, many employers do not see it that way. Employers looking for skills related to economics won’t search for English or philosophy majors. While in theory, the liberal arts can allow someone adapt to any field they will be somewhat more reluctant to hire an English major than an economics major, simply because the economics major has had direct training in economics. So most people majoring in the humanities and not looking to get into law school know that their career opportunities are somewhat limited. Some of them know that they will have to go to grad school and get a teaching position at a university in order to pursue their passion in the humanities. They are not doing it for the money but rather for the thirst of knowledge and passion for the subject. After all satisfaction does not only come in monetary terms.
While almost every four year university in the United States has humanities departments, this is not so in my native El Salvador. El Salvador, a small country in Central America has around six million inhabitants with a gross domestic product per capita of $6,400 US dollars per year (“El Salvador”). There are around thirty universities in El Salvador, of which most are of bad quality. What I find fascinating is that every single university offers professional programs such as business administration, marketing, accounting, engineering (various types of engineering degrees), architecture, law, medicine, graphic design, computer science, etc. The number of universities that offer degrees in humanities are limited; out of the thirty universities maybe five offer majors in the humanities. Even then, these universities offer only humanity courses in philosophy, theology, archeology, and anthropology. Trinity, one of the smallest four year colleges in the country, offers Art, Art History, Classical Studies, Drama, English, History, Music. These are available majors in a small university that are not offered in the entire country of El Salvador. Why is this so ? El Salvador is a developing country and most people care about finding careers that are generally profitable careers. People do not seek fields in humanities because the career opportunities are inexistent. As far as I know, only one university offers a doctorate degree (other than medicine and law) and by a doctorate degree I mean only one “major” at the doctorate level. This results in little study and interest in the humanities related to El Salvador. There is no university that offers a major in for example History of El Salvador. As a result, there is relatively few studies in the history of El Salvador. Most of the studies are in fact made by foreigners. While this is not bad in itself, imagine that American history would be written mostly by Germans and by a small minority of Americans. Germans do not have the insight that a native American might have. There are no universities that offer majors in Spanish Literature (by this I mean the language and not the country) and as a result there is little literature created or people who study literature in El Salvador.
So while studying the humanities does not “do anything” for Fish, at least they create culture and knowledge even if it is simply for the sake of knowledge. Otherwise the study of the human experience would be extremely limited.
El Salvador
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/es.html
Reading Daniel's account of the differences between higher education in the United States and El Salvador, specifically the differences in the availability of courses in the humanities, made me realize that humanities courses should be considered somewhat of a "luxury product." Much like anything else that is not pursued purely for survival, courses and degrees in the humanities are simply not going to be in as high demand as things that are necessary for living in places that are poor or developing economically. I couldn't help think about India also, where we often hear of people [who have the financial means to do so] graduating as doctors or as computer technicians but rarely in fields that fall within the humanities. I think Daniel was very right in saying that people in such countries avoid the humanities because there simply are too few career opportunities for it to be worth it. Although an education is expensive in American, it is still much harder to receive one in many other countries around the world. When the opportunity is there however, people will generally go for something that are confident they can make a living with. It's all about supply and demand. America's economy has room for entertainment, businesses that fulfill our desires for idle pleasure, and the humanities. Other countries simply do not.
ReplyDeleteObviously, as an English professor, I faithfully believe in the importance of the humanities as fundamental to a well-rounded education. But all this talk about careerism got me to wondering what job prospects really are for the humanities. I quickly Googled "humanities and job prospects" and came up with this nifty Web page, a highlight of which states the following:
ReplyDeleteA BA in humanities can often lead to future studies in law, medicine, and business. Teaching certification is often preceded by a liberal arts or humanities degree. The bachelor's degree provides a suitable background for many different kinds of entry-level jobs, such as research assistant, administrative aide, or management or sales trainee.
I'm not sure that someone who, say, spends $38,000 a year to attend college really wants to get out in the "real world" in order to become a . . . sales trainee. Certainly anyone with a college education but perhaps no real work experience will often need to start on a lower rung of the career ladder and work his or her way up, but what are the real differences in job preparation, hire rates, and upward mobility for those who major in the humanities versus those who major in the natural or social sciences?
Daniel also mentioned that one can pursue a graduate degree in the humanities and perhaps enter a career as a researcher and/or teacher at the college level, but the academic job search in the humanities has been terrible for decades now, and with the recent economic crisis, the market has ground almost to a halt: check out this article, for instance. There are simply too many people with a Master's degree or Ph.D. in humanities fields and nowhere near enough university jobs to go around, and those who have devoted a large chunk of their lives to the study and teaching of the humanities find themselves either having to return to school (again!) to study new subjects that will lead to more viable job prospects or taking entry-level jobs (e.g., secretarial work, database entry) in fields in which they have no training. That is, in some cases, those Ph.D.s in English and history and philosophy sometimes end up right alongside those B.A.s in the same fields when it comes to making a living! It's all a rather dismal situation; how can we fix this broken system?