Another Question
by zunguzungu
Dear Thomas Jefferson,
I get that, but the thing is, you know, Classics don’t pay the bills.That’s just reality. So why should the taxpayers of the state of Virginia pay for people to learn stuff that doesn’t pay off? You know? I’m thinking that either students should pay for it, or we should just let the market make those decisions.
Helen Dragas, Rector
*
Dear Helen Dragas,
Some good men, and even of respectable information, consider the learned sciences as useless acquirements; some think that they do not better the condition of man; and others that education, like private and individual concerns, should be left to private individual effort; not reflecting that an establishment embracing all the sciences which may be useful and even necessary in the various vocations of life, with the buildings and apparatus belonging to each, are far beyond the reach of individual means, and must either derive existence from public patronage, or not exist at all. This would leave us, then, without those callings which depend on education, or send us to other countries to seek the instruction they require.
(original)
Reblogged this on GHOSTADDRESS.
Well, Helen Dragas is wrong, that Classics doesn’t pay the bills. A degree in any of the Humanities gives someone valuable skills and information that improve productivity in the workplace and lead to greater wealth for the individual. This has been documented in various places. Philosophy is a case in point. Philosophy majors are in the top 3 majors for the GRE, MCAT, and LSAT, with Economics and Physics. In general, they have better starting salaries and better salaries 10 years after college than do supposedly profitable majors such as Business Administration. (This applies to majors that have no further graduate education.) Plus there are Philosophy grad school dropouts like William Miller, whose Legg Mason Value Trust beat the S & P 500 every year between 1991 and 2005.
These reasons are probably not the reasons why people choose Humanities majors, but they can’t be ignored as a part of the value of those majors. They choose them because they recognize that there is more to leading a good life and living in a good society than success in marketplaces, productivity, or the generation of wealth.
I just thought I would mention this.