Don’t believe the haters: Liberal arts are now more important than ever
‘Basically, it’s about who wants to make money and who pursues what they love’
As you walk around Hunter College you’ll often overhear students complaining about their Bio or Calculus classes. Someone will yell about losing credit on their MyMathLab question or teaching themselves General Chemistry. The nursing program is hell, and you’ll never reach the end of your Bachelor’s degree if you pursue a Bio major. You won’t have enough credits to graduate in 4 years and you don’t even know why you’re studying science.
So why not do liberal arts?
In recent years this generation of students has been pushed into focusing on science and math. The liberal arts and fine arts degrees have taken a backseat, marked as unimportant or useless. Whether it’s pressure from your parents or the appeal of money, a career in math or science has been made out to be the “correct” educational choice.
English, history, art and other forms of expression not pertaining to the sciences have been marked as extra-curricular by many parents. The artist is no longer nurtured in the home and the writer is no longer held on a pedestal. The doctor and the engineer are now the profession everyone clamors for while the intellectual is tossed to the side, marked as a has-been who took the “easy way out.”
I asked several students who wished to remain anonymous if they believed there was a stigma associated with studying the liberal arts or fine arts.
A nutrition major said that they agreed that there is one saying, “parents are a big factor,” and “There’s a fear of being a disappointment.”
This rings true for many college students looking to please parents who went through hardship to get them into and through college. It is in many students’ minds that if they don’t have a better job or life than their parents then they have let their parents down. This pressure is a very disconcerting for many young people searching for a career.
Lara, a psychology major said, “science is safer” and that you have to “think realistically” which is what honestly goes through most students minds. There is less security in getting a job in liberal arts or the fine arts as a job may not come to you immediately.
As an accounting major put it, “There is the stigma that liberal arts students make very little money, which is true in some cases, so it deters people from doing the arts.”
To gain more perspective on what the students of Hunter College thought about the importance of liberal arts and fine arts to society interviewed a few of them. I asked each of them, “Do you think liberal arts and fine arts are important to society and why?” Here are there responses.
Faiza Farooq , 18, Biochem
“Yes, I wouldn’t purse it personally, but they supply us with entertainment and keep us informed and we need that.”
Sebastian Yumiseba, 20, Biochem
“Long gone were the days when intellectuals were good at everything, writing, math and science, like the great philosophers … Someone needs to do it, we need to stay informed and without them society would be stagnated.”
Salma Uddin, 19, Undecided
“I grew up into science majors but yes, many of them become teachers or social workers and that benefits society.”
Deven Brigdelall, 18, Accounting
“They are able to look at social issues and produce personal answers and that aids society.”
People are still not very inclined to studying the arts because of the social implications and lack of security as it comes to career opportunities. There is an obvious understanding for its importance, but no one is longer willing to take the risk of financial safety to pursue a creative career that might make them happier in the long run. Studying the arts is a bold move of someone who knows what they want in life and stays true to themselves.
Whether you think it’s the easy way out or not the world as we know it will not be as cultured and enriched without the artist, historian, or philosopher.
The best way to sum up the feelings of a liberal arts major to college came from my friend Salma, an English major, “At least we’re not the ones crying for days because someone took the last Bio seat.”