Is getting a humanities degree still worth it?
‘Absolutely,’ says author Brent van Staalduinen. ‘There is a genuine benefit to our hyper-connected world in having people who know the whys and not just the hows.’
As I enter the fourth year of my Bachelor of Arts in English Writing, people often ask me: “What do you hope to do after you graduate?” A reasonable question, one I have asked myself, but I don’t always have a direct answer. There are many things I could do after graduating. However, the focus of my education has been less on what job I will obtain, and more on just being educated.
Over the past two and a half decades, humanities programs in universities across Canada have been slowly shrinking by about 7,000 students per year while enrollment in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and Business has increased. One factor could be that STEM and Business programs offer a simpler answer to the “what do you hope to do after graduating” question. Meanwhile, a degree in humanities – or a liberal arts education in general – is often not about securing a job in the workforce. The Canadian Encyclopedia defines a liberal arts education as a program of study in which the goals “are not those of vocational and professional training.”
A nimble degree
Best-selling author and lecturer at Redeemer University, Brent van Staalduinen, told CC, “Those of us in the field [humanities] have long faced the nearsighted perception that an arts or humanities degree doesn’t have a direct connection to a career or well-paying job after graduation like specialty degrees in business or science.” Van Staalduinen admitted that in some ways this can be true, “but it also ignores the well-documented reality that humanities and arts graduates are well prepared for the unexpected and can be better equipped to shift with the times.”
“Having exposure to and experience with a broad range of material, teaching approaches and course content, often provides a genuine advantage over mono-focused areas of study,” said van Staalduinen. Contemporary careers often demand workers who are nimble and can pivot to new challenges. For example, “an engineer who can read critically, a historian who gets basic physics, or a business person who understands philosophy and how people reason.”
“Is it still worth it? Absolutely,” stated van Staalduinen. “There is a genuine benefit to our hyper-connected world in having people who know the ‘why’s and not just the ‘how’s.” He went on to say, “Ironically, despite the ever-expanding online universe of information to access and technologies to help us function, our hyper-dependence on connected things is actually forcing us to think smaller.” With the rise of artificial intelligence, “and its correlated dumbing-down of everyday skills and understandings, we need more humanity right now, more art, more social exploration, not less.”
Humanities in the Christian walk
Al Wolters, retired professor emeritus of Religion and Theology at Redeemer University, told CC that the value of studying the humanities lies less in getting ahead in our competitive economic environment and more in “broadening one’s horizons and grappling with the big questions of human life as we pursue our calling.”
Wolters went on to say that from a Christian perspective, “the study of the humanities can be helpful in finding one’s way among the competing ideologies which claim our allegiance today.”
“A study of the humanities, especially philosophy, theology, history and languages is indispensable for discerning the spiritual depth dimension of human culture,” said Wolters, referring to both academic and non-academic spheres. “For example, to write a book such as the acclaimed Political Visions & Illusions by David T. Koyzis, emeritus professor of Political Science at Redeemer University, which analyzes political ideologies in terms of the biblical notion of creation and idolatry, would have been impossible without a solid grounding in the humanities.”
I would add that the humanities are needed when studying the Bible. The Bible is a literary work of art. It is filled with poetry, history, letters and songs. God has chosen to communicate with humanity through the words and thoughts of other people. To study his word, its cultural context, its timelessness and to see it as God expressing his heart to us, requires skills typically learned in humanities programs.
A liberal arts education
Since the first universities were built, their purpose has been to ground students in “exploring what they want for their lives.” The humanities, in particular, help us understand the human experience, what humans have created across history, and why.
If you have ever enjoyed a good book or found a character that you relate to, then you have received one of the gifts of a humanities education: good writing. Writers have the skills to place what is thought, felt and seen into words, which connects us as humans. Perhaps it is no surprise that van Staalduinen, who has just published his sixth book of fiction, The Peace Thieves, credits his success as an author to his education in English and Writing. “I use daily the skills and understandings gained in my liberal arts education,” he said.
To be able to place life and humanity into words, songs and pictures for others to see themselves in is needed in our world today. Social media pushes out content like fast fashion, bombarding us from every side, and what we need now more than ever is people who seek to uphold not only beauty, but also truth.
In an essay written by Christopher Derrick, called Escape from Scepticism: Liberal Education as if Truth Mattered, he states in a chapter called “Education for Freedom,” that someone who obtains a liberal education is encouraged to develop themselves more fully as a man or woman. They will be “well-read, informed, sensitive” and have “some apprehension of the fine arts, some understanding of the world and its history and its problems.” Their sympathies will be broad and their mind tolerant. “If there arises some question of the public or political kind,” they will bring to the discussion “something better than mere prejudice and self-interest.” They will have “some skill in the difficult arts of reading and writing and thinking,” and they “will have inner resources.” They will be someone “worth talking to.”
A liberal arts education is not about getting a job or receiving job training. It is, in fact, far more rewarding. It is about developing an inner life. To read books, to think about things and to form a well-rounded opinion. It prepares you for life and makes you someone “worth talking to.”
