For some time I have been watching with interest as people have debated the place that the liberal arts (to which I have dedicated my professional life for more than a decade) have in modern education. I believe in the value of the liberal arts, personally, but I think there are legitimate reasons why other people don't. I think the future of the liberal arts looks better as we artists learn to relate better to others, including those who see us as a waste of space.
Articles like this one are too true for comfort. That said, I
don't believe that people like Alan Bloom (cited in the article) are right to
blame moral relativism for the death of the humanities. On the
contrary, the real reason we care about things like justice
is that they differ palpably (and relatively) as different people
identify and apply them in different historical circumstances. The
virtues are interesting to us precisely because they are not monolithic,
uniform, or absolute. We are drawn to them because they are relative.
They are also not guaranteed to make anyone wealthy or "productive" (in
the modern sense). They require time, hard work (ponos), and a high
tolerance for failure (when you think you know what justice means and
the result is blatantly unjust: you must have the acumen to notice this,
acknowledge it to yourself and others, and move forward to something
new). They teach us how to be happy, not how to have lots of stuff or
be "leaders" (which seem to abound in modern society the same way the
A-grade does: we are all super-intelligent leaders, so we all wear the
same clothes, spout the same platitudes, compete for the same jobs, and
expect the same material "rewards" from our moral education).
If people
decide that the humanities are not worth paying for, then I will be
sorry to lose my chance to be a professional humanist. But I will not
stop reading, thinking, or cultivating the humanist virtues that I
regard as essential components of my moral integrity. I don't do these
things merely to make a living. I do them because I love them. I am a
humanist first and foremost because I love humanism, not because I
expect to make a comfortable living teaching, reading, and writing in
the manner of some really fortunate humanists before me.
Personally, I
think part of the problem is that we are currently living in an
education bubble similar to the housing bubble that just exploded.
Contrary to the rhetoric we often hear bandied about these days, not
everyone needs to take a university degree to contribute meaningfully to
society. Not everyone needs to take a degree in humanism to appreciate
what it has to offer. Not everyone needs to study ancient Greek and
Latin to benefit from reading and interpreting the classics. I know
this. I currently teach many people who have never had experiences like
mine. They will most likely never read all the books I have read (as I
have not read all the books read by all the professors I have ever
studied with). My purpose as an educator is not to make these students
into clones of myself, professional humanists seeking employment with
their local university, but to introduce them to the wide variety of
tools humanism has come up with over the centuries to enable happy,
virtuous living. I don't need to make piles of cash to do this. I
don't even require guaranteed benefits (for myself or my dependents). I
would never force anyone to take my classes. I would not advise anyone
to take out massive loans in order to enroll in them.
I think the
value of the humanities speaks for itself clearly enough to remain
relevant even if they kick us from the university (so that they can have
all the money for more sports and administrators, not to mention all
the super-fancy facilities: some students apparently cannot have a real
learning experience without an indoor climbing wall, jacuzzis, multiple
restaurants, dorms that look like the Ritz, etc.).
No comments:
Post a Comment