Bad Things About Liberal Arts and the Bottom Line

I take semi-regular calls with Gonzaga seniors who are applying for jobs in the Silicon Valley and liberal arts majors trying to navigate the business globe. On those calls, many of the liberal arts majors I speak with share that they believe or have been told by others that majoring in a liberal fine art is non valuable, applied, or employable in "the existent earth." With respect to those students and their confidants—and despite the fact that I was a liberal arts major and consider the topic with some pretty implicit bias—they're wrong. That said, the false incongruence between academic major and job viability is something I recollect that Gonzaga and its Cosmic, Jesuit, liberal arts tradition is uniquely well-suited to assist address. Merely put, I'chiliad writing this to tell y'all emphatically that majoring in a liberal art is i of the most practical things a student can do.

Stepping back (dramatically): Since the commencement of fourth dimension, the purest goal of academia has been not to create high-paying jobs, just to advance knowledge. The goal of a liberal arts didactics—a bland platitude just truthful—is to teach students how to think, and help them choose what to think near. The goal of a Cosmic, Jesuit, liberal arts educational activity is to get further, and testify students how Transcendental Truth (patently, God) is fundamental to what they call back and choose to think about in the world. This is singled-out from the value proposition offered past a school like Caltech, where the emphasis is less on holistic education and more on specialized training. Every bit one such Catholic, Jesuit, liberal arts university, the goal at Gonzaga ought to be helping students construct pregnant in life through reason and critical discernment. Students who tin do this well volition be categorically better equipped to consider and thrive in major life decisions, like jobs.

Stepping sideways (anecdotally): A fun thing to consider nearly our very near future is that as applied science progresses, a major provision and value of the university—the supply of knowledge—will be fundamentally undermined. Already, the ubiquity of access to the world's information and the democratization of every data betoken imaginable makes the challenge not memorizing or accessing fabric—dates, facts, figures—but rather comprehending vast quantities of it.

Stepping dorsum in (specifically): The competencies that a liberal arts education emphasizes—writing, synthesis, inquiry, problem solving, argumentation, disquisitional thinking—are the exact competencies all employers want. Information technology is also what they need. Liberal arts majors are forced to deal with a lot of gray areas in their studies, and they do non have the luxury of dealing with black and white truths (every bit accounting and engineering do, for example). Moreover, the pursuit of knowledge inside the liberal arts besides requires a sure degree of humility, as the honest pursuit of these studies tends to go far quite obvious to students that the more than ane learns, the less 1 knows. People who can navigate ambiguity with strong critical thinking skills and humility tend to exercise pretty well in the concern world. A recent Harvard economical study found that jobs requiring both soft skills and thinking skills take had the largest growth in employment and pay in the last three decades. Yet, puzzlingly, a mutual knock on liberal arts (which buttresses both skill types) is that it is hard to find a showtime job and that some majors are unemployable.

"The Unemployable Argument" is 1 that I take become familiar with on those calls with Gonzaga seniors. I take been told variations of "My parents won't help me with tuition if I major in [make full-in-the-blank-liberal-art], which is why I'k majoring in [fill-in-the-blank-business-or-technology]," or "I beloved [fill-in-the-bare-liberal-art], just have taken out likewise many loans to major in something that's not applied" countless times. These have to be some of the to the lowest degree compelling things a possible employer tin hear from an applicant, and they reek of a lack of bureau. Moreover, sentiments like these are not grounded in data or logic; they are emblematic of plain incorrect-thinking (which, ironically, liberal arts combats).

At Gonzaga, "The Unemployable Argument" provides a narrative opportunity to begin a campaign confronting "The Unemployable Fallacy"; the Gonzaga community can—and must—practise a better job of addressing this for parents and students who believe that liberal arts majors are unemployable. That notion ignores:

1. Modern economical realities: Jobs require a mix of skills not easily packaged in any one major.
2. Awaiting technological realities: Many technical skills that degrees confer can exist learned open source; some majors will become obsolete over time (e.thou., computers tin exist programmed to replace accountants; artificial intelligence will program computers), while other majors—irrespective of university—already lag behind changes in the workplace (e.g., man resources).

Employment information shows that less than i-third of higher graduates work in jobs directly related to their majors; this should be justification enough for both a strong core curriculum and a liberal arts education. Good employers know that the most of import investment any business can make is an investment in expert people. Accordingly, they hire new employees not just for one job but for any number of future roles (hence the benefits of beingness well rounded). Moreover, those same employers will teach their employees what they need to do to be successful functionally, only they will non take the time or inclination to teach what merely a liberal arts education can provide but what all employers acutely need (e.g., with history and psychology and biological science, inquiry and prove-based argumentation; with philosophy and religion and literature, insights into the homo condition). College students should study widely while they can afford the luxury; the workplace will force them to narrow and specialize. The value of a liberal arts pedagogy is that information technology allows students to become acquainted with bodies of knowledge without concern for the lesser line.

In my world of technology and venture capital letter investing, where reading people matters much more than reading algorithms or income statements, we know that picking the right entrepreneur has an outsized touch on a business concern' future success, much more than and then than the specific engineering, product, market place, or business concern model. The characteristic we care almost most when information technology comes to picking those entrepreneurs is adjustability (as a subset of creativity). And so far equally I tin can tell, a liberal arts didactics—specifically a Catholic, Jesuit, liberal arts education—stands the best chance of enabling adjustability for the side by side wave of new grads who enter the workforce.

Again, the goal of academia is non to create high-paying jobs, it is to advance knowledge and empower students with the critical thinking skills they will need to navigate the ups, downs, and side-steps of life. With and then much uncertainty in the world, we need expert thinkers—classically trained, critical thinkers—now more than ever. How to remember, write, form an opinion, dorsum it upwardly, present information technology compellingly, and how to yield and learn and examine the world with bright eyes and optimism, despite all the facts, are baseline side furnishings of study in the liberal arts and what Gonzaga'due south bookish tradition offers in abundance.

For its long-term viability as an authentically Catholic, Jesuit, liberal arts university, the Gonzaga community must deepen its delivery to empowering liberal arts majors and supporting more students in the pursuit of noesis for its ain sake. And don't worry: there are enough of tangential positive effects that approach will have for entering—and long-term success within—a modernistic and evolving global workforce.

The opinions expressed hither are Kevin O'Toole'southward solitary and do not reflect those of his employer.

hearnwhelving.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.gonzaga.edu/college-of-arts-sciences/about/a-liberal-arts-education-for-the-21st-century/the-value-of-a-liberal-arts-education/why-its-wrong-to-devalue-the-liberal-arts

Share this post