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Long answer to an annoying question

7/3/2014

3 Comments

 
When I was an undergraduate, I was often asked that annoying question that every English major is tired of hearing: "Why did you major in that?"  (Actually, that question didn't stop when I got my B.A.)  Apart from the fact that it's pretty rude to question someone's personal choices, at least getting pummeled with this one forced me to think: So why am I majoring in "that"?  

The answer I formulated for myself back then still holds, twenty-something years later: I'm one of those people who is interested in everything, and studying English allows me to study everything. No, we don't spend all our time studying grammar (though actually I wouldn't have minded doing more of that, but then I'm pretty geeky even by English major standards).

If English isn't just about grammar, what is it about?

English* is about language, ideas, stories, and what it all means.  (*Caveat: This is true of all language, not just English, and of expression in all cultures, not just English-speaking ones. But I'm in an English-speaking culture and English is my field, so I use the term "English" here in the broad disciplinary sense, not in the sense of "English only." If you're a specialist in Spanish or French or Mandarin or any other language--or if you work in a humanities-related field other than a language or its literature--please read this as applying to you also.)

Language. Try studying any supposedly more "relevant" subject without using language (duh); it's central to almost every aspect of human existence. (For now, I'll sidestep academic debates regarding the extent to which language constructs our very reality and assume we can all just agree that it's central.)  What could be more educationally relevant than the in-depth study of a culture's language and all that it expresses?  

Ideas shape the world; doesn't the idea of something have to exist before that thing can be brought into material reality? (Last month I viewed the Wright Brothers' plane at the Smithsonian, and the exhibit made it clear that the discovery of how to fly had to exist first as an idea.) 

Stories: How else do we make sense of our lives? How else do we teach our children? How else do we disseminate knowledge from one generation to the next, build social bonds within and across our communities, make sense of our personal and collective tragedies and triumphs? 

What it all means: Isn't that the most relevant question of all?  (And no, English teachers do not go around looking for "hidden meanings" in things--the fact that meanings are not actually "hidden" merits its own post and is something I'll get to later.)

So considering that English is about things that form the very center of human endeavor, why is it English that ends up in the institutional basement? (In some cases that location is merely metaphorical; in some cases it's also literal.)  Considering that we study and perpetuate what lies at the core of most other creative and intellectual pursuits, why are we the ones being treated like weirdos? Maybe it isn't the English majors who should be grilled at social gatherings about why we majored in "that."  Maybe it's not the English teachers who should be mocked (and underpaid). Maybe it's not those in the humanities and liberal arts who deserve to become the butt of national jokes regarding the addition of French fries to a fast-food order (though we also ought to cease mocking those who serve fast food for a living--snobbery is always ugly).

If humanities cease to matter in this world, what kind of world will it be?  Suggested reading list here: The Giver, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, and just about every other dystopian novel ever written. If you want to know what a humanities-free world might look like, countless authors have already done the work of imagining it for us. Hint: It isn't pretty.

It may be that right now, not enough people understand why we're necessary. But we are.

3 Comments
Lyn
7/3/2014 01:28:51 pm

I couldn't have put it any better. Now, every time I get asked this, I'll just link them to this blog. :) Actually, I've more often heard another question as a response: "Oh, so you're going to teach English?" My short answer to that is, "Yeah, I could teach, but I could also...well, I could do just about whatever I want." (Of course, getting a degree in education in itself is a hot-button topic, but we'll sidestep that for now.)

This post on the whole reminded me that friend and I once discussed, just for fun, what the single most universally useful major would be if there was only one major that colleges offered. She said that she's studying sociology because it's more useful to study the dynamics of people than the dynamics of words. I probably don't have to explain what my response to that was.

Of course, I also hardly need to point out that both sociology and English are important and useful. While they both study the dynamics of ideas in different methods, the goal is identical: to emerge from the studies with a better understanding of humanity and (hopefully) to work toward creating a better world.

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Underground Prof
7/3/2014 03:56:36 pm

Exactly--I'm not arguing against other fields such as social and natural sciences. We need them too! Nor am I arguing that humanities are "better"--just that they are central and therefore shouldn't be marginalized. Imagine a world where everybody majored in the same thing...would any of us really want to live there?

The other issue is that we need to stop applying quantitative paradigms to things that can't be measured in numerical terms--and, we've got to quit assuming that whatever can't be measured is somehow less important than what can. In fields where quantification is important, it's crucial. In fields where it's not, it's not. We need to know the difference and understand that the world needs both quantitative and qualitative.

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Jamie
7/7/2014 06:04:36 am

Your last comment reminds me of a quote attributed to Einstein - "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted". This is a great blog and I forward to more posts in the future.

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    The Underground Professor teaches English at a small private university. This blog explores how we might revitalize the humanities in the twenty-first century--and why it's important that we do so, in light of the our culture's current over-emphasis on profitability, quantitative measurement, and corporate control.


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