Where's the Humanities?

Having experienced my first few years of college as an English major in the Arts and Humanities field, I’ve come to realize a lot about the state of our education system. Young people are no longer learning to learn, they are learning to get rich. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just the way we’ve been raised. The center of our ideals in this country is money. How much money we need to make to be successful, to keep in our social class, etc. Everyone wants the ideal life with a good job, earning a good salary. Whatever happened to doing what you love?

I’ll tell you what happened, technology.

I don’t mean to be another one of those people that rant about the state of our country and how technology is scary, vast, and a huge monster that we are all to fear…but it sort of is if you think about it.
Technology is something you cannot live with, but cannot live without—one of those deals.

More and more young adults are going into business fields, technology fields, etc. and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I am willing to bet, however, that if you go and ask these young adults what they truly want to be that they are not going to say “I’ve always wanted to be an accountant!”

Why can’t we all just stick to what we wanted to be when we were 7? I wanted to be a ballerina, a car washer, and one of the people that fills up cups of pop at McDonalds. Those were my aspirations. Life would be a lot easier if I could do those things and be happy doing them. As I grew up, I realized that these things are not realistic if I want to be “successful” as it was laid out for me.

Back to the point.

Arts and Humanities may not mean much to some people and a lot of readers may be scratching their head or rolling their eyes, asking why? What’s the point?

I’ll tell you what the point is…the illiteracy rate in this country is at 44 million people. Where will these unfortunate people end up I ask myself. Who isn’t doing their job?

It would be easy to simply blame the government or the school systems, but we need to take a long hard look at ourselves and our own priorities. Each year the humanities and arts lose more and more students at the university level.

Reading and writing allow people to use a part of their brain that they may not have known existed before. Expanding vocabulary, learning the proper way to speak, and communication skills are few of the great benefits of reading and writing. The writing curriculum at the college level is a disgrace in itself. We are not doing enough to better ourselves by just getting a degree in something that will make us money. There is nothing wrong with people who do this, but there is something frighteningly wrong with people who do not believe that reading and writing is important. Which is it. It is a fundamental  key to the growth of the human being.

Libraries are shutting down, programs are being cut, for what reason? Kids simply don’t care anymore about those things. They would rather get on their iPhone or turn on their Xbox or get on their blog (har har har) than actually pick up a book and read it.

Reading and writing just simply are not important anymore, in turn making the entire realm of Arts and Humanities studies seemingly irrelevant to most people.

People are trying so very hard to keep kids interested in things other than television and their smart phones. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series reawakened a love for storytelling and millions around the world began to read again. Even books like Twilight (eek) were able to get people reading again. While it may all seem childish and silly, it is getting kids reading again, and that is what is important.

So where is the humanities, we ask. If we look deep down, below the new, shiny, geometrical buildings and into the depths of the hundred year old basement we can find a group of dusty old Shakespeare plays just waiting to be opened, and a small group of people who are willing to risk their financial status in order to better enrich their own lives