Last week, I stopped by Alexander’s downtown for a lip wax. The cosmetologist’s name was April; while prepping my upper lip for the fiery pain of a resin wax, she stooped over me to ask what I was studying after noticing my University of Scranton sweatshirt. “English, English Lit,” I managed under the bright white beauty light. “Ohhh,” she whispered as she stirred the hot liquid, “you don’t see that a lot anymore.”
The scarcity of humanities majors in higher education today is undeniable; between 2012 and 2020, degrees awarded in the humanities fell across the country by 29.6%, with only 7% of freshmen planning to major in the humanities at Harvard University in 2022. Many students and scholars of higher education have pointed to a fraught economy to explain this dwindling, one that is still struggling to recover from the 2020 recession with over 6.8 million unemployed. In a time of national economic strife, it is argued that college students are more inclined to concentrate in fields with near-guaranteed job placement and/or higher starting salaries, most of which reside under the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) umbrella. Others point to the attitudes of STEM-centric universities and STEM students themselves towards students of the humanities; surveyed Harvard STEM majors deemed humanities students “a joke,” practically uneducated, students of a “passion project,” and generally unproductive members of American society; one even asserted that humanities majors don’t need to go to college to “do what they want to do.” These pompous personalities are what have not only tarnished the American public’s respect surrounding the fields of English, history, philosophy, theology, etc., but also contributed to an epidemic of budgetary demolishment for the humanities, with faculty, majors, and entire departments disappearing across the country; just this year, West Virginia University eliminated 28 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, which included most humanities programs; the administration additionally laid off 143 full-time faculty members, tenured and non-tenured. Given these staggering statistics, I understand how it may be hard to see hope for my path of study. Given these staggering statistics, it is more important now than ever before that I, and other students of the humanities, address those Harvard students head-on.
When I encounter the notion that humanities students are “a joke,” not as “educated” as STEM students, I think of Robin Williams. In the 1989 drama “Dead Poets Society,” he plays an English professor at an all-boys boarding school in Vermont; when meeting resistance from his students about the relevance of his field, he begins, “And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life,” and concludes, “But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” I ask you: why is it that 1 in 4 cancer patients experience depression? Because they’re out of time to run labs, build a bridge, hand in that calculus proof, run that Python sequence? For some, perhaps. But, for most, this diagnosis comes with the gruesome reality of time running out for the soul (or spirit, or true self, or what have you): time running out to have a slow morning with a spouse, to read that book sitting on the bedside table, to call grandchildren or nieces or nephews, to play with the puppy in the backyard. Although, indeed, we need STEM careers in order to live well as a body, the soul is found in the humanities; as a human species, we find meaning in our friendships, in nostalgia, in childhood memories, in our romantic connections. What reminds us of these vitalities are the humanities, whether it be reading a poem, watching a film, attending a play, listening to a song, or staring at a painting that you swear knows you in some way; we owe our understanding of “what’s important” in our lives to writers, artists, filmmakers, actresses, and musicians. A nationwide shortage of these individuals correlates positively with our generation’s plummeting mental health; according to a recent report, 42% of American Gen Zers have reported experiencing depression, while 65% of Gen Zers reported confronting some form of mental illness; that’s more than half of our entire generation. We are more lonely and disconnected from one another than ever, and it is my sincere belief that this is, in part, because we have decentered the areas of our education that promote empathy, compassion, community, and self-expression; 38% of Bachelor’s degrees were awarded to STEM majors in 2022, 18.8% to business/management majors, and merely 8.8% to humanities majors. Just to be clear, I aim not to discount those majoring in STEM fields, but simply to receive the same respect from those students that I attribute to them. The humanities are not a “joke,” nor is its education of any less value than that of the sciences; they are caring for two different sects of the human person. People obtain life-saving surgeries because they have something to get home to, and that “something” is what the humanities represent. They are equally necessary for human survival.
At this moment, the humanities are certainly shrinking, but they are not dying. As a country, we are in desperate need of togetherness, of understanding, of kindness; these soft skills are what the humanities teach, and what our generation is wholly missing. I love my major, I love my department, and I love what I am learning. My academic work has taught me how to collaborate, think critically, engage in conversation with those different from me, put myself in another’s shoes, connect with emotions, experiences, and beliefs that I may not hold but can hold appreciation for. I find these skills to be anything but impractical; they serve me well each and every day.
I implore you: pick up a book, go to a play, turn up your favorite album, visit a museum. This is “what we stay alive for.”
Sources:
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
https://www.aecf.org/blog/generation-z-and-mental-health
https://www.newsweek.com/college-bubble-bursting-good-riddance-opinion-1853367
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the-english-major
https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/06/14/humanities-arent-hurting-everywhere-opinion
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/4/1/humanities-dying-professors-disagree/