
Enough with trashing the liberal arts. Stop being stupid - ritchiea
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/03/05/enough-with-trashing-the-liberal-arts-stop-being-stupid/
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angersock
Upvoting to encourage discussion.

The problem isn't that the liberal arts are completely without value--and
anybody making that particular argument is a fool. The problem is that there
is increasingly a huge gap between the sort of work one can get with the
proper initial credentials and the work you can get without...and the people
who can get, say, a development or engineering job without a STEM degree could
do the same without a liberal arts degree _and they would probably be better
off monetarily for forgoing one_.

If you aren't studying something that has a clear economic offramp, you are
literally just giving money away to institutions who are happy to scalp you.
It is pretty damned cheap to run liberal arts programs compared with good
engineering programs, and there is plenty of competition for professorships
regardless of field--there is probably no greater way of minting money than to
fleece these students by offering those classes.

There's one part of the article that leaps out at me as really questionable:

 _" Not a single American student, however, will be indemnified from the
things that make life hard by the mastery of facts on a test or a big salary.
Difficulties come our way from both personal circumstances and the inevitable
unfairness of an imperfect society."_

Having a lot of money _really does_ filter out a lot of stupid shit that could
otherwise ruin your life or grind you into depression. Sure, there's still the
everyday ennui to deal with, but if you've never consoled yourself with
expensive food, booze, partying, shopping, medicine, therapy, or any of the
other ways to use money to rent (if not buy) happiness, you should give it a
shot sometime. It's pretty great.

One day I hope to have that kind of money to spare again. :|

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brianclements
Of course a well rounded education comes from many sources and factors, both
internal and external. But in general I feel that:

STEM training = literacy for the jobs we have now

Liberal arts training = big picture training for innovation that we have yet
to do.

Remember this John Adams quote:

 _" I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study
mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy,
geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and
agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting,
poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."_

Education has moved in this direction, but our economy has not innovated
alongside it to make work for them.

