The liberal arts are disappearing from college campuses. Majors like philosophy are being deemed useless, while accounting appears to be on the rise. Or something.
I get that philosophy majors won’t get jobs. A future in academia, yes, but not a position at that banking firm (yet we wonder why many of them are crooks). It was the big joke on campus between those of use who chose our degrees in Humanities, Socrates or bust. Yet, we relished what we learned. Socrates taught us to question while Kant showed us another way of viewing the world. We came out thinkers and questioners, never accepting anything at face value.
Life is boring that way.
St. Mary’s President Thomas Mengler expects its business school to grow. And there’s a value in having such professional degrees in liberal arts schools, said Edward Speed, retired CEO of Texas Dow Employees Credit Union. He and his wife have given $287,500 to St. Mary’s, his alma mater, in the past three months, most to liberal arts programs.
Speed credits that type of education with propelling him to the CEO’s chair and said he could easily spot recruits with similar backgrounds.
Businesses are social organizations, he said, and employees “without that background in literature, the arts, language and politics — they’re mechanics.”
‘Nuff said.