A little pep talk from a barely-making-it, liberal arts graduate

I have recently, for a variety of reasons, been pushed into reexamining the concept of Liberal Arts and decided to do a bit of research. The farther back in history one looks, the clearer the picture becomes, leaving recent history a veritable mud hole of confusion.
I remember several illuminating conversations with professors- some left me feeling immensely proud to be the active receipt of such an education while others left me drowning in the so-called “white man’s burden”. I have chosen in more recent years to let go of what I cannot control and focus on what I did in order to get said education, and to feel good about that.
So then, why did I choose such an education? Why on earth did I put myself into this debt-hole and was it worth it? I worked my tushy off for 4 years and today I am making about the same amount of money (inflation accounted for) I did when I was 16. So…why? Thus the bit of history.
I found it rather interesting and uplifting, so I’ll share my research here, in the hopes that other, financially-strapped, well-educated boys and girls might hopefully find some comfort in remembering why we chose what we did. Hopefully, like myself, they will remember that, hardship aside, we would not do it differently given the chance at a do-over.

A word of warning: Some of this is legitimate research…much of it is my own musing, not particularly well referenced or double checked!

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Way back in 1374 “liber” meant “free” and also “book”, a coincidence (some say*) that illustrates the entire point of the as-yet-to-be-founded Liberal Arts Education. In 1375, someone coined the word “liberal” as the adjective to “Liberal Arts” which were designated as those “objects of study worthy of a free person”.1 Its no wonder that class-ism has plagued the Liberal Arts for the last 636 years. The implication is that trade and practicable skills are below the free and that the liberal arts are worthy of study largely due to a particular type of uselessness. This concept of education did not originate here, but more likely with Aristotle.
This flies in the face of what we know to be the “why” behind the Liberal Education today. Today, we say that the mind is set free by knowing how to think, rather than what to think. In theory at least, we learn how a mathematician and scientist thinks, rather then memorizing the facts they discover or methodologies. In this there is a root of utilitarianism that I do not see in the original meaning of Liberal Arts.
That is not to suggest that today we denied the beauty of knowledge for its own sake, only that we sometimes feel compelled to dress it up in slightly less ostentation clothes. I think that we feel compelled to attribute usefulness in order to seem less aloof. Which is completely fair, despite being perhaps misguided. Shouldn’t we aspire that our society grant more people the chance to think useless thoughts rather than to hide in closets the fact that a few do? It is a great privilege to ponder such worthless questions as, “what if you were suddenly released from a cave wherein all your life you had watched shadows on the wall and known nothing else?”
When looked at in comparison to the other educational option of the day, the answer to preference seems rather clear. Back in 1375, if you weren’t liberally education, you would be lucky to have a trade. Starting at a young age, you would train to do one thing, and one thing only. There was no mid-life crisis involving a career change. Frequently you did the same thing your father and/or mother did and rarely learned about much else. Small wonder the stark class divides persisted as long as they did- there was nothing for them to talk about, hardly even a common language to bridge the gaping void.
This type of training was all the less fortunate could do to survive and remain comfortable- that is, stay out of the streets. Meanwhile, the elite class was able to pursue pointless musings, learning utterly useless information with which to make great conversation.
So, are you feeling better about your choice of education? Consider this- 635 years ago, technology was much the same as 535 years ago, or 735 years ago. In fact, change came so rarely and so slowly that a person was able to count on his/ her trade for a life time and the lifetimes of their children. In other words, training such as they had lent itself to a sort of low comfort and to survival. In contrast, today technologies change so rapidly and so pervasively that is it silly to assume that your first job will even remotely resemble the job you from which you will retire. Today, the liberal arts are a fail safe against the quickly changing society in which we live.
While still not what most people would call “useful”, liberal education does in fact provide a way to navigate a rather unpredictable life. In teaching one how to think, it has prepared us to do a bit of a dance. In encouraging us to stay thirsty for seemingly useless (but oh so attractive) knowledge, we perhaps accidentally stay up-to-date and cutting edge while those who go the more practical, vocationally drive route risk falling irrelevant during the frequent seismic shifts.
SO, perhaps someday those of us who took the less practical way will someday find that, in actuality, we took the wiser, wider path.
Now…if only those bills didn’t take so long to pay off.

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*I’m not so sure. In a time when literacy was low and books largely unavailable, it seems to me that the ability to read and write would be a very precious sort of freedom.

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