February 9, 2010
The Big Lie About the ‘Life of the Mind’
Short story, if you are not rich or require a living wage, then you’re probably screwed:
The myth of the academic meritocracy powerfully affects students from families that believe in education, that may or may not have attained a few undergraduate degrees, but do not have a lot of experience with how access to the professions is controlled. Their daughter goes to graduate school, earns a doctorate in comparative literature from an Ivy League university, everyone is proud of her, and then they are shocked when she struggles for years to earn more than the minimum wage. (Meanwhile, her brother—who was never very good at school—makes a decent living fixing HVAC systems with a six-month certificate from a for-profit school near the Interstate.)
Unless, of course, your reason for studying was for the love of wisdom and not a career, but does anybody do that anymore? (via Austin Kleon)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKm-_VyNVoM
Look Upon Me! I’ll Show You The Life Of The Mind!
Well played.
I don’t know…I had a flash of memory reading the article and searched youtube. I selected the extended edition over the shorter version ( golly). I slapped it up here.
Shouldn’t I have have formed a cogent and cohesive refutation or appreciation of his commentary? Ain’t I supposed to be learned and engage in the ongoing critical dialogue? Ought’nt I make an attempt to dissect the structure of his argument and fallacy or genius of opinion?
And if having done so…would it have been any more illuminating than the short edit of a movie?
I am not on task.
I’m just surprised that people don’t already see that this is obvious. The crucial thing of course is the American way of student debt, which, I would have thought, would send anybody applying to college toward the ‘usual suspect’ professions and leave the humanities a wasteland in American life, altogether.
I mean, studying philosophy or literature anywhere with no intention of becoming an academic is a mad thing to do most of the time, except that it is a luxury of being 17 or 18 and going to college in a country that has no university fees, and the university environment can open all sorts of possibilities and interests. I think that’s probably the best of what a certain kind of education can give, actually: a grown-up playground in a university with interesting groups and clubs and shit going on.
I’m surprised that intelligent people are so naive as to not realise that studying humanities is narrowing down their career prospects enormously, except that perhaps they think that having the word ‘Harvard’ or ‘Yale’ on their resume will open doors in itself. And it might indeed do, but that is fairly murky and unreliable territory.
I studied comparative literature with the belief that advanced critical thinking abilities would serve me well in any field. And, sure enough, as graduation neared, I was courted by businesses–big businesses looking for smart people. ( I’m not a corporate-minded person, so in the end I rejected the business offers.) I have never once regretted my humanities education; neither have I ever found it difficult to earn a decent living.
Well, you got lucky.
Absolutely, lucky. I have too many friends, perfectly smart people with doctorates, who are really struggling.
That’s me, all right–nothing but good luck.
Well see, I totally agree with the idea of developing ‘critical thinking’ skills, and generally growing up a bit and sharpening your shit in a relatively sheltered environment that encourages and facilitates curiosity. Truly, as far as I’m concerned, that is the best of what a university can offer, other than training people to become doctors, lawyers, vets, pharmacists, engineers. I just don’t think it takes a doctorate to do that, and if you are pursuing the same paradigm all the way to a doctorate, the air is really pretty thin up there.
Well, shoot, Cindy. Don’t hear what I am not saying.
Bingo, Lucy. And I don’t have a doctorate–I have a master’s degree. But I’d very likely be doing the same thing I’m doing, regardless of how far I took the education.
I’m frankly surprised by people who pursue any degree with a view toward a particular career, only to be shocked to discover that their options are limited. I’m particularly puzzled by people who pursue humanities doctorates with the intent to teach without realizing what they are actually getting themselves into. But I don’t blame humanities programs for the problems of underemployment so much as the clueless people who go into them. (This is a downright conservative view. Andrew–can you believe it?)
And Andrew hon, my comment was meant to be lighthearted–I’m not the least bit offended by anything this morning. Not yet, anyway.
Give me time, Cindy. I am sure I can make it happen.
Also, I book marking this page for posterity. I need hard proof the a Scroggins can have a conservative view.
I see many college students every day who really should save their parents some money and themselves some pain by heading straight for a high-paying trade. If a person doesn’t care deeply about a subject, and want to be around others in order to discuss the matter late into the night–then most college study is a bad idea. It’s not love of a subject (literature, say) that dooms a person–it’s no love at all, no imagination, and the thought that a packaged path is a way to the Good that precludes the need to make judgments.
I remember being a young man just out of the military, with no big responsibilities and a chance to go to school. And like many in such a situation, I found it hard to decide what I wanted to pursue. I floundered around for a while, and then decided that when one doesn’t know what course to take–one should head for what one loves while trying to build a range of broadly applicable abilities along the way. In this way I became happy in my studies of literature. I worked in bookstores, and more than once I had people say–”You’re an English major? What the hell are you going to do with that dergree?” And I would say that I planned to wipe my ass with it, thank you. They would ask what kind of job I tought I was going to get, and I would say–I have a job now. Naturally I did have to think harder about such things when Cindy and I got married and we had a child, but I wouldn’t have met Cindy if I hadn’t done things the way I have done them. I teach now, and some aspects of the job are pleasant and some are definitely not. But I could also quit anytime I wanted to (and will soon), which is more than many can say who have bought the whole picture–delivered to them by everything from the Prosperity Gospel to ask-your-doctor-about-Prozac ads–of what an American’s life should be. I think a person’s powers of imagination may be educated, and that’s what being an English major can do for a person.
I think a person’s powers of imagination may be educated, and that’s what being an English major can do for a person.
That is invaluable in my opinion.
Did I ever tell y’all about the professor who stapled Marine Corps applications to his students’ papers before handing them back?
I think I may be a case in point on this one.
I graduated this past spring with a double major in Fine Arts and Literature. Unless I want to do the professional painter thing, my main option is more schooling. I still have plenty of options to choose from in the grad school department, but not too many of them are practical in the education=job sense.
Frankly though, I’ve expected this. Choose a Humanities degree and people are bound to tell you how impractical you are from day one. And they’re right: I’m impractical, but I wouldn’t do anything differently. I find myself really missing the intellectual environment.
But yeah, ok, I’m also working as a waitress and trying to think about Grad school options without hyperventilating. Peace Corps, anyone?.
Grad School May Not Be the Right Decision…
The debate about the merits and deficiencies of pursuing grad school are not anything new. A large section of this debate stems from Thomas H. Benton’s piece last year in the Chronicle of Higher Education, in which the professor asserts that Humanitie…
I’m here waiting with baited breath for more Lucy, Andrew and of course, India’s POV.
Where I come from, there are a few roads: the privileged (you have the family’s connections no matter what), the immigrant (study hard, avoid jobs to deter you from education), and the working class (go to school or work hard but DO something). To enlighten, my family is equally divided between slightly damp off the boat immigrant and solid steel working class. It’s been hard to go to school, excel at humanities and see no potential for success outside of school. And I think it starts young. The successful working class and priviledged SEEM to have achieved such a thing through education, after all don’t most career paths require a bachelors? What very few school counselours will note is that it takes drive, enthusiasm and networking. Oh dear networking, how is that supposed to happen if you live in a small town? Or come from/are an immigrant? Where’s your enthusiasm when all this suddenly becomes apparent your third year in a school far from home and your classmates have internships set up for them?
I realize that there are mentorships and fraternities, honor societies, etc. But even perfectly socialized, intelligent, well-rounded, super-educated folks out there are still struggling.
/twocents
For what it’s worth, I think most people are having some kind of a hard time these days, whatever their education level. Also, in New York you’re either struggling or rich or you’ve had a stroke of very good fortune.
i also went the useless lit/writing ba route. (so i of course make my living in technology.) yet somehow i do not lay awake nights pining for a bs in computer science