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Re: Is liberal arts degree worth anything? » trouble

Posted by paula on February 10, 2002, at 16:26:47

In reply to Is liberal arts degree worth anything?, posted by trouble on February 10, 2002, at 15:41:59

Oh boy, this is a hot-button topic for me, so I'll try to be succinct and low key. I think a liberal arts degree is better -- more useful and more enriching -- than most. It's a simple matter of "teaching someone to fish rather than giving them a fish to eat." The notion that education is about learning facts is completely bogus. The information age we live in makes it tempting to think that somehow if we cram more facts into our brains that we'll be smarter or more valuable. But facts are inert. If you want facts, buy an encyclopedia. A liberal arts degree, whether English, Anthropology, Art History, Music (my degree), Italian (my minor), will teach you how to think critically, how to assess evidence, how to wage arguments, how to think both inside and outside the box, how to come to questions with an open mind. I think it's the best preparation for life, and the truest expression of "education." And, btw, liberal arts graduates are highly prized by medical and law schools.

Ok, I'll stop now before I really get carried away.

Your resident fan (and practitioner of) the _studia humanitatis_,
paula


> B/c that's what I want, a degree in English, but does that have any cachet in today's world of niche-driven technological specialization?
> The research I've seen does not bode well for earning a living w/ a degree in the humanities but I wonder if there's anyone out there who has done it and has no regrets.
> I've heard people say they wished they could do it over again, get the degree in something profitable and study humanities on their own. It makes sense, but whose gonna teach me how to read Shakespeare and that whole gang? I've tried to learn on my own, and it won't do.
> I'm single, have a documented learning disability, am in my mid-40s, come from lower-working class roots, no one in my family graduated High School, I have 40 college credits in general studies, and clean houses for $. Studying English under these conditions seems illicit, and indulgent, stupid, immature, I'm sure you're familiar w/ the admonitions. Paralyzing. But I'm thiscloseto making up my mind to go for it anyway.
> Does that sound supportable, given my deficits on top of today's economy?
>
> thanks,
> trouble


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