Liberal arts graduates
According to MSN news this morning, those students studying in a quantitative field of math or science will most likely find it easier in landing that first job that pays more than $45,000 per year. Is this really a surprise? Most students who graduate do graduate with a liberal arts degree not related to math or science and so the number of, shall I call them, quantitative students find it much easier landing a job in a country who relies heavily on the scientific method and supply and demand.
Though just this Saturday while lusting over pianos in one of Saint Louis' only and finest Roland digital piano dealer, one of the sales people approached my wife and I nicely chattering on about how she recognized us from college (though we had never seen her before). It was not long before she started chattering on about statistics and then when couldn't answer our questions, she fetched yet another sales person who started spouting poetic falsities that made my wife and I flinch when we knew well the products. The one interesting aspect of the conversation between us and the sales woman was that she was a biochemist who worked in laboratories for years testing samples and earning over $50,000 per year. But she could not handle the monotany of the job, the loneliness of it without people to interact with. She felt the objectivity and unfeeling of science. I'm sure she took a dramatic pay cut to sell pianos and digital pianos, but the job was a good fit for her -- positive attitude, talkative, good communicator, knowledgable.
Perhaps much of the reason for the failure of liberal arts colleges and universities lies in their curriculum. With the diminishing realm of the arts and the requirement of math and science becoming more and more emphasized, objective, methodical thinking replaces genuine creativity. The liberal arts are turning into a general education college where a student skims the surface of many different subjects. Capstone courses, or courses that integrate life and learning, specialized field with general knowledge of other fields, interaction with people from different disciplines touch upon a concept that may better prepare students for the job market, but do not change the fact that math and science fields are in more demand.
What then is the true artist, writer, photographer to do in a world quantified and controlled by the American government? When creativity is limited by the way in which students are taught beginning in preschool what then is it to live? Creativity does exist in the quantitative fields, but only because of the few eccentric who still cling onto childhood curiosity and who question the methodical systems of the culture. Those who blindly accept a system worship an idol.
My liberal arts education was not achieved so that I might get a high paying job, but so that I could avoid the lust over wealth that cripples the world. Those of you who want money, you can have it. It doesn't make life easier...it gives you more responsibility...and if you don't think so, you're ignorant, cold, and barely human (just my opinion). Don't forget to live because you're too obsessed with striking it rich. To the artist who wants his art to succeed monetarily -- your self orientation of artist is misplaced. True art and money do not necessarily correlate.
Though just this Saturday while lusting over pianos in one of Saint Louis' only and finest Roland digital piano dealer, one of the sales people approached my wife and I nicely chattering on about how she recognized us from college (though we had never seen her before). It was not long before she started chattering on about statistics and then when couldn't answer our questions, she fetched yet another sales person who started spouting poetic falsities that made my wife and I flinch when we knew well the products. The one interesting aspect of the conversation between us and the sales woman was that she was a biochemist who worked in laboratories for years testing samples and earning over $50,000 per year. But she could not handle the monotany of the job, the loneliness of it without people to interact with. She felt the objectivity and unfeeling of science. I'm sure she took a dramatic pay cut to sell pianos and digital pianos, but the job was a good fit for her -- positive attitude, talkative, good communicator, knowledgable.
Perhaps much of the reason for the failure of liberal arts colleges and universities lies in their curriculum. With the diminishing realm of the arts and the requirement of math and science becoming more and more emphasized, objective, methodical thinking replaces genuine creativity. The liberal arts are turning into a general education college where a student skims the surface of many different subjects. Capstone courses, or courses that integrate life and learning, specialized field with general knowledge of other fields, interaction with people from different disciplines touch upon a concept that may better prepare students for the job market, but do not change the fact that math and science fields are in more demand.
What then is the true artist, writer, photographer to do in a world quantified and controlled by the American government? When creativity is limited by the way in which students are taught beginning in preschool what then is it to live? Creativity does exist in the quantitative fields, but only because of the few eccentric who still cling onto childhood curiosity and who question the methodical systems of the culture. Those who blindly accept a system worship an idol.
My liberal arts education was not achieved so that I might get a high paying job, but so that I could avoid the lust over wealth that cripples the world. Those of you who want money, you can have it. It doesn't make life easier...it gives you more responsibility...and if you don't think so, you're ignorant, cold, and barely human (just my opinion). Don't forget to live because you're too obsessed with striking it rich. To the artist who wants his art to succeed monetarily -- your self orientation of artist is misplaced. True art and money do not necessarily correlate.
posted by Timcom at 8:22 AM
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