The Humanities: Why Shakespeare? (Why Me?)
The humanities are the least understood and rarely appreciated area of learning connected with the educated person. Definitions of the humanities are too often obscure and a bit snooty for many students. The subjects and concerns that comprise the humanities appear to offer little that is obviously useful (or profitable), especially when compared to study in science, technology, and business administration. Students might find the humanities interesting, but usually dismiss philosophy, art history, literature, comparative religions, and others as remote from immediate, practical problems. The common complaint for decades about the humanities? “They just don’t have anything to do with the real world.”
But, hold on. Let me challenge that majority opinion.
In my experience, the humanities are (1) indispensable for life in an unreasonable world, (2) vital for public decision-making that affects all of us, and (3) essential for career aspirations on a professional level. The problem is that few students recognize these benefits because most have never had a clear, working definition of the humanities and its disciplines. Also, few college students have had the humanities explained with reference to these three vital contexts: a personal life, public policy, and career.[1]
Defining the humanities is not easy. Neat, one-line definitions are very hard to come by. But to get started, here’s the traditional core of disciplines or subjects that make up the humanities: history, philosophy, literature, comparative religion, the history and criticism of the arts, foreign languages, and linguistics (the scientific study of languages). In addition, cultural anthropology, jurisprudence (the theory and philosophy of law), and any aspects of the social and natural sciences that use historical and philosophical approaches can be part of the humanities. At some point, you’ve likely had a course that touches on one of these disciplines or subjects. Your study might have been more focused and valuable if it had been placed within the following contexts.
The Humanities: A Reasonable Choice for an Unreasonable World
Study in the humanities offers something quite vital for individuals. Let’s face it, we all meet with personal pain and difficult decisions in life. I suggest these struggles can be eased in part by the understanding, wisdom, and comfort extended by the humanities. Through a study of literature, history, philosophy, comparative religion, artistic achievements, and languages, we can discover and weigh experiences, values, beliefs, identities, fears, and passions. The humanities offer us a vast storehouse of life’s triumphs and failures; we have, as poet Matthew Arnold so famously advised, “the best of what has been thought and known.”
Perhaps the most valuable contribution the humanities offer to a student are possibilities for surviving the unexpected, the inexplicable, the unfair, the inexact, and the inherently disappointing situations life forces on us. The humanities also provide opportunities to understand and express, however imperfectly, the happiness and joy of human existence.
Might the study of the humanities help us face up to prejudice, gain a global perspective and better cross-cultural understanding, confront the problems of old age and death, and aspire to virtue? My study in the humanities prompts me to say, yes. The humanities certainly help us see things in the broadest possible context and provide standards for judging what is right and wrong. And as one advocate informs us, the humanities “protect and give life to our most enduring values”[2] (. . . nothing to sneeze at as we make our way in a rapidly changing, complex, and troubling modern age).
The Humanities: A Necessity for Practical Public Policy
The humanities can contribute important points of view to a variety of public policy issues: foreign policy, health care, scientific and technological discovery, privacy, and education, to name a few. All these issues demand, at some point, the perspectives offered by the historian, the philosopher, or the legal scholar. For example, can government policy decisions on the cost, provision, and distribution of medical resources proceed without the philosopher to help outline what is equitable and ethical? Can we decide on the right to privacy versus the public need to know without the legal scholar to remind us of constitutional backgrounds? Can a useful and keen-edged approach to economic difficulties be possible if policymakers have no sense of our economic and cultural history? I don’t think the humanities are irrelevant or pie-in-the-sky fluff in regard to these situations.
Here’s an important consideration: “The prevailing dissatisfaction with the humanities is not so much because they are irrelevant to issues of social and public policy, but because they are seldom timely enough to be fitted into the decision-making process as currently defined.”[3]The humanities are not impracticable as so many assume; their flaw is that they cannot, it seems, be applied with the speed requisite to meet rapidly moving public policy time demands. But hold on!
Isn’t it true that too many decisions made by elected officials and others on critical issues are made in “the absence of attention of values, history, and significance for individuals” and “are often short-lived, expensive, and thus truly impractical?”[4]Perhaps public policymakers might be wise to slow down and work to include humanistic perspectives, thus avoiding many of the morally suspect, antidemocratic, inequitable outcomes of decisions made with undue haste. On the other hand, it’s certain that humanities scholars have fallen down on the job by not investigating ways in which they could anticipate and apply their knowledge to public policy issues that require accelerated discussion. But it’s not as though the humanities cannot adapt and respond more rapidly.
The Humanities: Professional Competence and Career Achievement Enhanced
In a competition between a literature major and a business administration student for an entry-level position at the Widget Corporation, the likely winner will be . . . ? You guessed right. The business administration major will take the prize in most cases (unless, of course, the personnel manager is a closet Shakespearian). The same would hold true for job applicants to a human services agency or a public administration position. The individual with the prescribed technical, preprofessional coursework will probably have an edge. But, how far will that individual go in a business or profession beyond the entry level?Will their training suffice over the longer run? Is it the best guarantee for career success?
The fact is that success in a career or profession beyond the entry level will likely demand more than courses of the “how to do it” and “how it’s done” type. Since so many students in colleges and universities concentrate on business administration, let’s take that area of study as a focus.
The constant demands of change in the business world cannot be met by textbook formulas alone; the diversity of business situations requires more than inflexible, rote responses. I suggest that someone in business with certain abilities (communication, observation, critical analysis, evaluation, research, etc.) and understanding (of individuals, languages, customs, culture, creativity, ethics, historical precedents, limits, etc.) will be far more successful than someone without these attributes. If a business or corporation encourages employee initiatives and decision sharing, the executives will be looking for someone equipped to do more than react to situations. In theory, someone with a broad education in the liberal arts, particularly the humanities, will be ready to do more than react and follow obvious (and perhaps out-of-date) pathways.
In the service professions, the humanities are critical to decision-making and innovation. Individuals in this area of work need to make decisions based on a historical understanding of cultures and cultural sensitivities, language abilities, and ethical frameworks, and have a respect for individual rights, differences, and religious beliefs. Those who aspire to careers in the service professions must study the humanities because they need to deal with ambiguity, appreciate the complexity of problems, and the limits of problem solving. Perhaps more than others, these human service professionals must be ready to face the frailty and folly of the human condition¾something the humanities takes in stride. It is not enough to be a capable worker in human services. The demands and stakes are too great¾not only for individuals and groups seeking help but for society at large. The professionals helping communities, families, and individuals must rise above technical responses to serious social and public problems to be successful.
At this point, I’m going to extend our discussion of the humanities and career success. In doing so, I want you to recall what you learned in chapter 2 about what we called “educated-person requirements.” In effect, I want to make sure you don’t miss this point: in the matter of career success beyond the entry level,[5]the sorts of understanding, skills, and traits closely linked to educated-person requirements are essential and are not easily attained without study in the humanities. These outcomes of study, let me argue, are the most likely to be of long-term benefit to you in a career. They will set you apart from the competition, advance your position, and reward you with enhanced confidence in meeting the challenges of careers beyond the entry level. I am not alone in this opinion.
A study conducted not long ago on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (“Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn”) echoes what others have reported about the value of educated-person requirements for professional careers. The “Raising the Bar” study reveals some key opinions held by a majority of employers surveyed. That majority wants colleges to “place a greater emphasis on a variety of learning outcomes developed through a liberal education . . .”[6] On their list are these familiar categories:
1. Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world (for example, 70 percent favored “the ability to understand the global context of situations and decisions”)
2. Intellectual and practical skills (such as communicating effectively, orally and in writing; critical thinking and analytical reasoning; analyzing and solving complex problems)
3. Personal and social responsibility (for example, employers wanted individuals to have developed the ability “to connect choices and actions to ethical decisions”)
* * * * *
Given what you know about study in the humanities now, it would make sense to regard the study of literature, history, philosophy, and other like subjects as essential to future career success beyond the entry level. As a result of my previous research on this subject, I can suggest that the farther up one goes in a career, the more the knowledge, skills, and traits associated with educated-person requirements come into play. But you can see for yourself. Here’s a way to get started:
Step 1: Identify some career fields that are of particular interest to you right now. Which of these careers most appeals to you at this point when you look down the road past graduation? On the basis of your desired career choices, check out what are some of the prerequisites and skills for entering into these career fields?* Do the humanities’ skills mentioned in this chapter have relevance to your career choices? How so? Will you need a graduate degree? How might some of the humanities’ skills and understanding enhance your graduate study?
Step 2: Find at least one person in your career field who is willing to talk with you about the most important knowledge, skills, and traits necessary to be successful beyond the entry level. Ask if study in the humanities has added value and contributed to career success? Exactly how has that occurred in terms of knowledge, skills, and traits acquired in humanities study? Does what your interview has revealed about outcomes gained from study in the humanities mirror those you have identified in reading this chapter?
*Take a look at some of the career sites, such as http://www.careerplanner.com/Job-Descriptions, to see what sorts of qualifications and abilities are expected for employment in the career areas you have identified.
[1] This chapter is based on an earlier version in Thomas B. Jones, ed., The Humanities: An Introduction (St. Paul: Metropolitan State University, 1980), out of print.
[2] Richard J. Franke, “The Power of the Humanities and a Challenge to Humanists,” Daedalus 138, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 13–23. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3671/is_200901/ai_n31426904/.
[3] James P. Smith, “The Humanities and Public Policy Issues,” in Thomas B. Jones, The Humanities: An Introduction (St. Paul: Metropolitan State University, 1980).
[4] Ibid.
[5] A career, as opposed to a job, implies professionalism, continued education, expanding one’s expertise, and moving toward higher levels of decision-making (perhaps higher levels of authority). A career demands more than technical training and entry-level skills.
[6] “Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn,” (2010) http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/2009_EmployerSurvey.pdf/.
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