Today's New York Times has an article discussing the drop in interest in the humanities which tends to occur during recessionary times:
Many in the field worry that in this current crisis those areas will be hit hardest.Already scholars point to troubling signs. A December survey of 200 higher education institutions by The Chronicle of Higher Education and Moody’s Investors Services found that 5 percent have imposed a total hiring freeze, and an additional 43 percent have imposed a partial freeze.
As a firm believer in and disciple of the humanities, I wanted to offer a slightly different viewpoint. As tempting as it is to jump on the bandwagon of practicality during a fiscal crisis, I still see a strong role for the humanities going forward. And I truly hope that Anthony Kronman, former dean of Yale Law School and one of my mentors, is incorrect in his prediction that a humanities education may become "“a great luxury that many cannot afford.”
In law training, of course, having a humanities background of some sort is a great help. Law still remains a field of reading and writing (and, yes, document production), and I've found that those purely science, tech or business undergrads have a real disadvantage when it comes to adapting to law school. It's hard to write a memo or a brief when you've done virtually no writing at all in high school or college! Certainly those coming from literary or historical training have a jump start in that first year of school, and possibly later on as well.
More broadly that that, however, learning and investing in the humanities provides a blueprint for living. Not just ethical living, as the article points out, but a roadmap for a richer and more fulfilling life. Whether it's Seneca or Saint-Saens, the liberal arts help us give texture and meaning to our daily existence. And in a world where job security is non-existent and disaster looms around every corner, finding a way to live beyond and through the quotidian realities of survival seems all the more essential. We aren't the first to go through a period like this, nor will we be the last. Let the humanities light the way.
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