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Sour Grapes: What’s the Real Value of a Liberal Arts Education For Teachers?

July 14th, 2011 by

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I was reading an article on Salon.com recently about whether or not a liberal arts degree has any value in the working world of today. I had to ask myself this same question for two reasons, one, I have a liberal arts degree in Communications/Cinema (History, Production and Theory) from Southern Methodist University, and I have a Master’s Degree in Teaching from USC that I earned through the MAT@USC; and two, I’m about to teach students who plan on entering the working world or going to college and earning their own liberal arts degree. Am I preparing my students for anything other than teaching in their future?

What is the real value of a liberal arts degree? What does it prepare a person to do or to be in the real world? I decided to research what my Alma Matter was saying to address this concern. According to William M. Tsutsui, the Dean of Dedman college at Southern Methodist University, it prepares students to become creative thinkers and problems solvers and to face an uncertain economic future with courage and solutions. I have to ask, is that enough? Is it more than enough? Where would I be without my degree? If someone who thought they knew better had told me I had to major in business instead of film I would probably have dropped out of college and run away to Hollywood to make movies right away. I’m grateful no one told me what I should major in during my college career. The same cannot be said of my high school guidance counselor. It was my perception that her job was to guide my plans in the direction of success based on my dreams, goals and aptitudes. I have no idea what her perception of her job or her role was in my life, I was too young to ask or to care. All I remember, all these years later, were her fateful words to the wise, “What’s your back-up career?”

I could not for the life of me understand what she was talking about. I was going to school to study filmmaking then I was going to Los Angeles to make movies, end of story, period, done, over, fin. That’s exactly what I did. I did not become famous, but there’s always time for that. I did not become wealthy, but money’s not everything. I did find my voice, my creativity and my passion in life. I learned things the classroom prepared me for, but could not teach me. I made mistakes. I failed. I succeeded. I failed again. I made more mistakes.

Would my life have been better if I had learned a trade, or gone to business school? I’ll never know. I don’t really care. All I know is that I finally took my guidance counselor’s advice and decided on a back-up career, teaching. It’s more challenging and difficult than the first. It pays as much, maybe a little more. It comes with benefits. And I know I love it because I’d do it for free (I did during my internship). Could I be the teacher I am today without my first passion of filmmaking? No, it informs my teaching. Could I be a teacher without my liberal arts degree? No, it gave me a solid base to build my Master’s degree on top of in the MAT@USC. Could I be a teacher without the MAT@USC? No, I would have no idea what I was doing in a classroom.

The real value of a liberal arts degree is the same value as anything we spend time, passion and energy doing. It is the same value we get out of teaching, and it is the same value we should be giving to our students: the opportunity to become critical thinkers, to discover our voice and learn how to use it in the real world.

The value of my liberal arts education: priceless.

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  • Diane

    Great post! I agree with you. When I was starting college many years ago I was encouraged to do something I had no interest in: business. I switched to Journalism, only because the degree I really wanted wasn’t offered at the school I went to. I do not view teaching as my back up plan (I am currently in the MAT@USC and will finish in November), but am so thankful I followed my heart when I went back to school rather than the advice of a bunch of people who had no idea what I wanted out of my education and life.

  • http://www.facebook.com/leah.inaba Leah Limacher

    There is always value in education.  Education in a classroom, education at home, education on the streets, education in prison, education at work.  There is always value in education.  I used to be an ardent supporter of education for education’s sake.  I used to hate it when education was equated with working, with how much money you will make.  It still irritates me though now that I’m older and more mature I do understand the connection between education and economics.  However, I still mourn the days gone by when students chose their majors based on what they loved not based on how much money they wanted to make.  Yes, there are still those that choose this way, but as an institution our education system links education with earnings.  I wrote an essay once on the value of education where I referred to Thomas Jefferson’s ideas on education.  He believed an education is “an indispensable vehicle for the achievement of happiness.”  How can something once equated with happiness now be equated with money?  It is because our society has erroneously linked money and happiness.  I always hate it when people ask me what I “do” with my degree.  You don’t do anything with it but live as an educated person.  But because I was never able to say I was a social worker or a counselor by profession, apparently I have not “done” anything with my degree in Behavioral Science.  Yet, those who know me understand that I speak from my background as a Behavioral Scientist every time I open my mouth.  Just as you have said in other postings, when we teach we bring all of our education from inside and outside of the classroom with us, we bring all our experiences with us.  Just as the students’ social contexts follow them into the classroom, so do ours as teachers.  So, whether it’s a degree in Liberal Arts or Science or Math or Creative Writing, we teach as person’s informed by those degrees.  Being educated is highly valuable no matter where that education came from.