Letters: ‘Life Philosophy Is More Than a Credential’
The Humanities Are in Crisis
In August, Benjamin Schmidt wrote about the decline in college humanities majors. “Students aren’t fleeing degrees with poor job prospect,” he wrote. “They’re fleeing humanities and related fields specifically because they think they have poor job prospects.”
Regarding the crisis of declining humanities degrees, I, an old STEM-degree holder, offer an alternative hypothesis. I see college-age people as idealistic as ever, as committed to making the world a better place as ever. I suspect that degree choice driven by perceived earning power applies to about the same subset of the population as always.
Rather, I think what’s changed is beliefs about how exactly to make the world a better place.
Studying the humanities has not made us more humane. Studying history has not made us less apt to repeat it. Political science has demonstrably not improved our political climate. I suspect these are widely held beliefs among college-age people.
Meanwhile, although the better life promised by technology is more limited in scope, depth, and profundity, has been proving more able to deliver on its promises.
