“English, English Lit,” I managed under the bright white beauty light. “Ohhh,” she whispered as she stirred the hot liquid, “you don’t see that a lot anymore.”The scarcity of humanities majors in higher education today is undeniable; between 2012 and 2020, degrees awarded in the humanities fell across the country by 29.6%, with only 7% of freshmen planning to major in the humanities at Harvard University in 2022. When I encounter the notion that humanities students are “a joke,” not as “educated” as STEM students, I think of Robin Williams. Although, indeed, we need STEM careers in order to live well as a body, the soul is found in the humanities; as a human species, we find meaning in our friendships, in nostalgia, in childhood memories, in our romantic connections. As a country, we are in desperate need of togetherness, of understanding, of kindness; these soft skills are what the humanities teach, and what our generation is wholly missing.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 16, 2024 01:34 UTC