Twenty-first Friday after Pentecost
What were the courses in college that were the most help for you in your life apart from your work?
When I went to college back in the middle of another century, the whole concept of higher education was much different from what it is now. The purpose of higher education was to make you a better educated person, more knowledgeable in many areas, adept at critical thinking, able to do your own sophisticated research, able to make fine distinctions, have a much larger worldview, see different perspectives on the same issues, and become a more thoughtful person.
All that has changed. Now higher education is job prep. The purpose of higher education is to get you a higher paying job. If you pick up anything else along the way, that's nice. In those days job prep was what you did in graduate school or in on-the-job training, Only later, in the 1980's, did I begin to get the question from students I was academic advising, "What can I do with a history major ? (you can substitute any other liberal arts major for "history" in this sentence," My answer to the question, "What can you do with a history major?" was always, "Anything you want." In those days that answer was true, not in these days.
Here's my answer to the question that began this blog: The most valuable non-career related courses for me were the three courses I had in Classical Music and the two courses I had in Art History. These courses gave me the knowledge and the ability to enjoy the most beautiful accomplishments of humanity. I can't read music or play any instrument but I can guarantee you that I will know, for example, every work that will be played on the PBS special on the life of the great conductor Michael Tillson Thomas tonight. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, but I can, for example, date a painting from the seventy-year career of Pablo Picasso on the basis his changing styles over the periods of his career. More importantly, I can feel the wonderful pleasure of hearing the music and seeing the art. This isn't because I'm smart (I'm not); it is because I'm educated.
Although I don't have first hand involvement with higher education anymore, I don't anticipate any near future change in its direction. In the Middle Ages the chief educators in the arts were the churches. The great cathedrals of Europe contained the art in every sculpture and every stained glass window. They contained the music in every choir and organ. They prepared people for the Renaissance.
So here's my proposal: The churches should reclaim education in the arts and the humanities. The churches should offer all the learning that students are missing out on in higher education today. The Divinity schools should start training Ministers of the Arts. I know that Choir Directors and Organists do a lot of this music education today, but generally that education is more or less limited to choir members. Education in things like art history is largely absent from the churches.
What do you think?
Faithfully,
Christian
3 comments:
Great idea! We certainly appreciated the Arts Spiritoso events at first UMC, North Wilkesboro during your tenure.
Christian, I have a different viewpoint about why quite a few students are choosing their major at Chapel Hill these days- this viewpoint concerns about 500 Environmental Sciences and Environmental Studies undergraduate majors at UNC-Chapel Hill. The former major involves more science coursework, the latter more humanities and social sciences coursework, however, both majors allow and encourage considerable “cross-cutting” across traditional disciplinary lines. I find that the primary motivation of most of these students is to become involved in and to help lead efforts to change what they have come to understand is the dangerous direction in which our nation and much of the world is headed with regards to unsustainable natural resource utilization, damage to the environment and social problems such as distribution of wealth. Many are well-read and ready to discuss their ideas- they love travel and interactions with diverse populations and most seek out a "Study Abroad" opportunity where they encounter diverse experiences. For the most part this student group is quite different from the “practical minded” business and science majors I recall from the 70’s through the 90’s. Most are top-ranking students when they arrive at UNC with terrific academic talents and accomplishments, many already involved in related activities as high schoolers. They do ask for guidance about internships and potential employment along the way but generally are already committed to careers in areas that include ecology, economics, alternative energy, sustainable business practices and so on. None that I know have chosen these majors simply to make a living as chemists or as fossil fuel exploration geologists, for example. They are very accomplished when they graduate, and they either head off to graduate and professional schools or immediately find their places in the marketplace with companies such as Strata Solar, Lee (clothing), Proctor and Gamble, etc., etc., as those companies seek to remain competitive under rapidly changing circumstances. And I love to attend "Clean Tech Summits" and graduation ceremonies because of the talents and drive that all in the audience witness as these fabulous young ones hit the world- they are already making a difference.
I love this! My entire college education was in the liberal arts, except for a strange phase where I got into computer science. I was extremely blessed to have Jaroslav Pelikan as my adviser. I finished my history major fast and then went on to for all practical purposes minor in art history. I also spent my extra curricular time doing political activity, from the Yale Political Union where we routinely debated such figures as Secretaries of State, governors, senators, and controversial thought leaders. The second week of my freshman year I debated then Governor Robert Casey (Father of the current Bob Casey of PA) on abortion. I spent spare time in the Yale Art Gallery and the Yale Museum of British Art, great places to take dates if you want to see if they're worth going out with. :) I'm so grateful that my parents never pressured me to get a "job" major. We didn't have those at Yale, really, except for the pre-meds. I got to learn to think in a way that has made me flexible, able to jump from union organizing to public health and through some other weird things, and to look at the world as more than just money, more than simply fitting into a mold, and, when not clouded by sad thoughts, quite beautiful.
The problem with a liberal arts education is that it creates people who can THINK. And when they think, they may challenge the status quo. They may fight injustice, and have the tools to do it. They may not be content to just sit at a desk or whatever the proverbial equivalent of punching a clock is today. They may create art that inspires and even radicalizes others. They care about more than money, and many of those who do use their talents in ways that make money contribute large sums to the arts.
An education in the arts and humanities is dangerous. If you know history, you see the danger of what is happening right now, and you've got some ideas about what to do about it. If you love art, you are less likely to be beaten down by the day to day demands of work. Did you know that in the small factories where the workers spent 16 hours a day sewing or doing other hard piece work, one worker would read aloud to the others as they worked? And they organized, eventually, unions that brought you things like child labor laws, minimum wage and the weekend.
Taylorism created a kind of workplace that was streamlined, efficient, and looked at people as machines. A liberal arts education does the opposite of that. If the poor kids I taught in Reading, PA (school district 99% below the poverty level) could have a fraction of the education I got, with people like Marianne to teach them to read in kindergarten and the amazing teachers I had along the way to challenge them to think, my kids would be dangerous. Not dangerous the way people think they are now: not violent, not starting fights and riots. They'd be dangerous because they'd be running for city council and mayor, challenging health care officials who look at the poor as cost units not humans, and fighting with the pen (or, okay, the keyboard), not their fists and guns.
If the church could provide some of that education, I'd make as many deviled eggs as necessary to support the effort.
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