Once a well-respected stream, with many wanting to study humanities, today humanities are facing a crisis. A drastic drop in the number of students enrolling in humanities subjects has been observed for a considerable time.
Education is seen as a means of upward economic mobility, especially in developing countries. The career prospects of humanities students aren’t lucrative enough to cease this downward spiral. A closer look at the current scenario gives a clearer picture of this morbid ground reality.
The Tragedy of Humanities
Once a cradle that rocked human civilization to infancy, the modern world has not been kind to the humanities. The growing incomprehension of their value has led to the perception of the humanities being a luxurious vain indulgence. This takes away the attention of humanities being a research-driven field of human study.
Popular memes on social media poke fun at stereotypes of liberal arts and gender studies students. In the current times, it has become a trend to troll students for their choice of studying the humanities. This is mostly due to their opinions on political issues or their comparatively lower remunerations.
While quantitative fields such as economics and psychology are holding the fort, the core humanities subjects such as literature, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy are on a decline.
Why Study humanities: To Be or Not To Be?
This is a debate so powerful that it needs a regular revisit to reinvigorate the discussion on studies essential to human existence. While everyone across the world pays lip service to these disciplines, funding for their programmes has seen a dramatic cut.
Those pursuing only tech jobs would want to convince the world that the humanities have no real value. Nothing to offer to the neoliberal world, but it’s quite the opposite. This is tunnel vision. The survey conducted by Hart Research Associates found that humanities students have a great foundational skill set required by companies.
Around 80% of employers agreed that students should have a broader knowledge of the liberal arts and sciences irrespective of their college degree. The qualities of ethical judgment, critical thinking, and collaborative problem solving are a staple for courses in humanities. Qualities that are most sought after by employers according to the study. The humanities reward students who are best at analysing data and communicating it most effectively through presentations and essays.
Why Study Humanities When the World is Looking the Other Way?
In the modern system of transactional education, students are trained to seek a return on investment when pursuing college degrees. The cost of education is inextricably connected to the idea of a future return based on median salaries offered to the course graduates. The idea of assigning abstract value to the impact of humanities is the very discourse that the humanities would help dismantle.
Topics such as history, political theory, public policy, linguistics, sociology, literature, and philosophy form the structure of civilization and their impact cannot be measured in the terms of monetary value. Simply put, how do you measure the joy of reading your favourite book in terms of “fiscal value”?
To answer why we need to study humanities we would like to quote Oscar Wilde, “All art is useless”. The quote is often misinterpreted, but at the crux of this wild thought lies the answer. It is futile to assign value to art or the humanities in general based on the metrics of our utilitarian views.
The Way Forward: Study Humanities Online
Shrinking resources within academic departments across universities have put an undue burden on the education system while also reducing the quality of education. While the change in education policy is the desired measure, learning humanities online could also prove to be a potent counter.
Digital libraries, peer review of research papers, and a robust community of enthusiasts could turn the tide in favor of the humanities. These programmes could also be pursued as double degrees in line with any STEM course attended by students.
The humanities will survive this dip as they have for several thousand years as pointed out by this Nature article. As a society, we need to take a closer look at the nature of profit maximisation which has also seeped into our education system. While the economic outlook is essential, it cannot come at the cost of systematically whitewashing over other fields of knowledge. The knowledge that essentially fuels this very economic growth and humanity in the bigger picture.
A collaborative vision that is symbiotic towards the economy, as well as creative satisfaction, is the need of the hour. For what? Simply to restore wisdom in our society.
Smile Foundation and Child Education
Smile Foundation admires that every child is unique. Some might be interested in everything related to science. Others might be fascinated by art and its mind-bending imagination power. If looked closely, science and arts are the two sides of a coin, both needing each other, to hold their own grounds and discoveries.
Our Mission Education programme envisions every child being an independent thinker. All the activities and projects are well aligned with this idea of educated children who grows up to be brilliant and great leaders. These precious ones add fresh chapters to the collective story of the world. Come help us to make the dream possible!
