Worth the Paper it was Printed On

Never has there been an era in my life time when a university degree has been more maligned. Not a University degree all together -leaving out the professional degrees – I am speaking more so of a liberal arts degree and to a lesser extent a science degree. For years, I heard back in Edmonton – a place where a premium is placed on practicality – how useless an arts degree was and how it created self entitled, unskilled individuals who in no shape or form were near the equivalent of a technical school graduate. Now with a glut of University Degrees - as a bubble of sorts developed the last decades where it was thought that a degree would immediately vault its holder into the middle class – a Bachelor of Arts is yielding less than ever job wise in a poor economy. With this information handy I have to ask myself, with future prospects presently not looking particular bright, would I take a liberal arts degree again if given the chance to redo it?

Connecting the past and the furture

Yes, I would and this is why. My degree in History and Sociology truly opened my mind’s eye to a world away from what I thought I knew. The ideas that I was brought into contact initially connected me not just to the present, but to a world of ideas and knowledge from the past which in turn gave me a method to look at the future. I was given a set of optics crafted from the thoughts of other thinkers to evaluate, critique, and understand what is around me in practical and abstract terms. Now to ask a rhetorical question, is the ability to think about society, art, and culture an avenue that has pragmatic social utility?... perhaps not, but still it is valid even if HR professionals and middle managers would have us believe it is not. I once told a girl friend if there was no art I wouldn’t want to live (I put intellectualism in with art) and I still feel that way. Beyond what is in front of our senses lies a beautiful world of ideas that I would have never have known about without further education. For me personally, it's that world that matters most.  

If you can’t see it, is it still there

The main skill I learnt in University was accessing things that are abstract and developing methods to question what is around me. In society, as it is now, these skills actually put you at a disadvantage as they stand against the status quo. The ability to assess information is the hall mark of an arts degree and it is this skill that creates a populous that will not passively accept dictates handed down to them about how they are suppose to perceive reality. Naturally these skills are not particularly liked in employers who would prefer to have employees that are passive and listen to rules without question, comment, or personality. People who think are dangerous and the question is why is that?  Perhaps because they have the possibility of leading legitimate dissent  against entrenched power structures. Those that do not respond to incentives they are "suppose" to - those incentives that have been socially engineered for people to respond to -are the actors that could effect change. The potential of this ability is a very powerful gift.

The question is more important than the answer

Perhaps a Bachelor Degree does not answer ones needs for societal reward, or even a passable income, but it still does give that possibility of seeing what is really there. In the end the trappings of success are just tertiary and lose their appeal as they become to common place for a person, being able to question and think for one self is the ultimate reward and the blue print for a worthwhile life. Now is a bachelor’s degree required for gaining this ability – no, does having a B.A. mean you will definitely get this view point – no... all that I am saying is that it certainly helped me get it. For that reason alone, despite all the derogatory things said about it, that made my B.A. worthwhile and something that enriched my life.