Question: Why should students waste their time majoring in history, English or the arts? If they can't get a job, aren't those majors useless?
Answer: Asking a business school dean about the humanities is forcing me to confess that business schools might not be the most important parts of a university.
While most business schools bring significant amounts of money to their institutions, without which many colleges could not survive, our system of higher education is rooted in the humanities and liberal arts.
Let me explain. (I will address the essential role of the sciences in the future.)
Repeat after me: I love history, philosophy and religion.
When your children go to college, they first take the university's core courses, or general studies. Most of those courses are in the humanities.
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Your daughter will take a course in English, one in U.S. history, another in world religions, and perhaps a fourth in philosophy. She will get excited about ideas and will want to scream when she can't understand some.
She will be challenged in her beliefs and forced to look at alternative views. She will learn about the famous writers. She will learn about the famous philosophers, and why it is hard to argue a point without understanding the philosophy behind your point.
Is there another time in our lives when we are so free to learn, explore, make mistakes and expand our minds without the possibility of being fired or ridiculed? Adults dream about going back to college just to be able to argue both sides of an issue when in their daily lives they might not get that chance.
Imagine a world without music or dance.
Many of our children will major in music, dance, theater, painting, sculpture, design, vocals, film and so on. As parents, we hope that they are so good that they will be able to support themselves. They might struggle financially, but they'll find a creative way to make a good living while performing their art.
We need them to continue having passion for their art. Look around your office, home or local museum: What if we did not have paintings hanging on our office walls, music playing in our homes, and sculptures displayed in our museums? What an empty life that would be!
What if there were no movies to take us to another world? Interestingly, many of the devices we use every day were dreamed up in art, specifically science fiction. Think about the hand-held electronic devices in "Star Trek" and "Dick Tracy." Then, think about cell phones and BlackBerries. So life does imitate art.
Our artists have had a profoundly positive effect on our lives. When I get to my office in the morning, before I turn on my computer I turn on my music, and then work begins.
Successful careers in the arts and humanities.
I've observed firsthand how students who are majoring in the humanities and liberal arts end up with good careers.
I was a guest at a meeting of a major corporation. Our alumni who worked there attended this meeting. I asked them to introduce themselves, and I expected that most had business degrees.
This was a Fortune 500 company, and my preconceived notion was that they hired only business majors. To my surprise, every conceivable major in the arts and humanities was represented.
Double majoring in business.
Many arts and humanities students have additional majors or minors in business.
Imagine how well a young artist could market her paintings if she had knowledge about marketing and branding. Similarly, she might learn to better manage her business cash flow if she learned something about accounting and finance. When I talk to parents, many hope that their children will take some business classes, so they'll be able to better manage the business details of their jobs and careers.
Surprising double major.
One of the brightest students I've ever met double-majored in religion and finance. She was a calm, rational student. She repeatedly said her mission in life was to help people manage their finances, and that she intended to do so with the highest ethics.
She was one among many students who want to go into business not only to earn a good living and do interesting work, but also to serve people with honesty and integrity.
Ali Malekzadeh Malekzadeh, a former administrator and faculty member at Arizona State University, is dean of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Contact him at askthedean@gmail.com Please include your name and hometown for possible publication.
