A Degree in Basket-Weaving

Guiding Choice of Major is a Serious Parental Responsibility

The choice of major is the most important educational choice your child will make. It outweighs choice of school by orders of magnitude.

Yet parents I speak to completely ignore this. They spend weeks and thousands of dollars flying their kids around to different schools, but don't spend 10 minutes giving some real-world guidance to their teens about what to study when they get there.

Parents need to guide their children into a sensible choice of major. Too many parents abdicate this responsibility.

A Note About Politeness to Humanities Graduates

There's this thing that we engineers do. We try to be polite to humanities majors. With a little experience, I learned, as most of us did, that the humanities major is impermeable to reason or argument. And that's fine.

I address this blog to the parents of those not yet caught in the intellectual trap that is the humanities major.

But this requires that I lay aside my politeness. When the topic comes up socially, I just nod and smile as some humanities major explains that their seemingly useless degree was actually a wonderful decision. That it "taught them to think," or some other obviously incorrect nonsense.

But in this blog post I am going to drop the politeness and say what almost everyone without a humanities degree is thinking: they are kind of a dumb choice for anyone entering school today. So let's be honest with our teens and educate them about the consequences of their choice of major.

If this offends someone who already made the mistake of getting a humanities degree, and is now invested in defending that decision forever, than that's a shame.

Good Advice from My Dad

Here is some real world guidance I got from my dad, and it was the best educational advice I ever got:

A B.A. is B.S.

My dad's point was sound way back in the last millennium, and it is sound now. A bachelor of arts degree is usually useless. A humanities degree is a poor educational choice for our children. Yet these degrees are the most commonly chosen by unguided teens.

Typical college age is 17/18 through 21/22. Its a time when physically we are adults, but mentally still retain some of the intellectual developmental power of childhood. It's a good time to learn a lot of serious material. If the time is instead spent learning art history, then it will mostly have been wasted.

And if the student of art history is a typical representative of my community, he or she will be paying upwards of $50K per year to look at pictures of art that they could see in person for a fraction of the price.

Education for the 21st Century

Worse then just a waste of time and money, humanities degrees also channel young students into a lifetime of ignorance and dependency on others.

The problem with humanities degrees is that they are defined by what they do not include: math and science.

I agree with Barbie: math is hard. So is science. But they are both essential for any fully-developed mind in the 21st century. Long gone are the days when anyone could be considered educated without some understanding of how the universe works.

In the 21st century, this will be more true than ever before. Science is becoming more and more relevant in our decision-making. It's true in the workplace, in the voting booth, and in the doctor's office.

A humanities degree, by definition, excludes all math and science knowledge. This purposeful ignorance has crippling impact on the student's future intellectual development. The beauty of higher math can never be appreciated. An understanding of the true nature of reality cannot even be approached. More practically, even the most common household appliance or office computer remains mysterious, almost magical.

A college-bound teen is at the beginning of a potentially exciting, productive, and profitable life-time of intellectual activity, solving real problems, helping real people. Don't cripple that potential before it has a chance to develop by excluding some of the most interesting and exciting intellectual activity in our civilization!

It takes time and effort to learn enough to understand Einsteins equations, to choose a famous example. But it is worth the time and it is worth the effort. Those equations have a beauty greater than any painting or sculpture, and just as worth of study and appreciation.

A Life of Learning or a Life of Ignorance?

A study of the humanities can enrich every mind. I strongly encourage all to take advantage of the rich heritage of thought and wisdom which can be found in the understanding of history, the reading of great works of literature, and the enjoyment of the best of the musical, theatrical, and other arts that have been developed since humans began their immense journey.

But a college education exclusively consisting of these is a waste of an educational opportunity. High school already prepares you to read and understand those things. And all of those materials remain equally accessible throughout our lives.

My study of history and literature continues, and I gain from it every year. I don't really need a university professor to tell me which books to read. Neither do young teens.

Can the same be said of science and math? These intellectual disciplines, by their nature, require more dedicated study and effort. To even ascend to the basic level of understand requires years of hard work. An engineering graduate is in the same position to science and math as a high school graduate is to humanities knowledge: the basics have been learned, and the real journey can begin. Without this rigorous preparation, there can be no further progress.

Most humanities majors will never advance beyond high-school knowledge of many vital and exciting intellectual areas, including climate science, genetic engineering, articicial intelligence, and practically every other area of active human research into the nature of reality.

But humanities majors will be forever locked out of the most exciting conversations on this century. They will move through our highly technological world with a look of bewilderment, as they depend on those who studied math and science to provide their food, clothing, housing, transportation, and medical care. And they will understand none of it.

I have seen a lot of engineers and scientist enjoying and participating in the humanities. I have known programmers who play multiple musical instruments, scientists who learn new languages, and engineers who spend their free time studying European history. However I have seen exactly zero humanities majors learning any math or even rudimentary science. (This is also a consequence of the fact that I rarely encounter humanities majors in any professional capacity other than as service workers.)

The Problem of Missing the Boat

One problem is that as soon as students get off the serious educational track of science and math, it is hard to get back on. For example, students may wish to go to college with an undeclared major, which seems fine.

The student will be told that they can take various interesting courses, and then decide majors at the end of their freshman year.

But looking into the details will reveal that if students don't take a heavy first year of science and math, many majors will be closed to them (unless they repeat freshman year to get the material).

Just because a 17 year-old can't make up their mind, we condemn them to a lifetime of ignorance and under-employment.

Let's Not Ignore the Job Situation

There is a bit of a fantasy approach to higher education in America. We imagine that students should choose majors based on higher considerations than those of mere employment.

Well that's just stupid.

Due to the way that our educational and economic systems are structured, students are unlikely to get multiple chances to take an undergrad degree. Those who are lucky enough to get to higher education are usually not going to be able to go back for another major. They've got one shot at picking a good one.

In addition to being a time to learn, to grow, and to have fun, college is a time to get a career started. And it's not just about money. Studying Shakespeare is not much satisfaction if you spend the rest of your life serving coffee. Most students picture themselves leaving University, getting a job, and making a difference in the world.

That does not happen by accident. If a graduate has no useful skills, they will not be hired. It's as simple as that. Students are advised to get some skills together while in University.

When Does a Humanities Degree Make Sense?

There are some cases where a humanities degree can make some sense, but only as a stepping-stone to an actual education. For example those who go on to become doctors and lawyers often start with humanities degrees.

Even a humanities degree is better than no degree, so if I had a child who was reluctant to go to collage, a humanities degree would probably be what I would pitch. They do sound interesting.