The Griffin Editorial: Your English degree is worthless

Perhaps reading that title raised your eyebrows, or maybe it didn’t because you believe it. If you are like me and have a major or majors in the arts and humanities, you have most likely heard this phrase before. Perhaps you have heard from family members, friends or colleagues that degrees in English, journalism, fine arts, communication, philosophy and history have no value in the “real world.” 

I know for myself, with a parent who was an immigrant from Asia and came to the United States, pursuing a humanities degree was nearly not an option because the majority of immigrant parents’ reality is that education has always been the key to escaping poverty within their own countries. Therefore, pursuing fields within the sciences was always “guaranteed success.” I began gaining experience in the healthcare field fairly early on, beginning with a job at a Children’s Hospital when I was seventeen going on eighteen years old, and the impact it had on me was significant. At this point, influences from all around me pointed to a career in healthcare, so when I arrived at Canisius, I enrolled in the physician assistant program and began taking classes. Now I love science, and I was not doing too badly in the classes, but the motivation to pursue these classes just wasn’t sticking. I found them extremely boring and bland in some ways, but I now credit my intuition with the gut feeling that we all have that simply says, “NO, not for you.” I grew up loving to read advanced classic literature, writing stories at a young age and aspiring to study English as a child (nerd, I know). Even after switching my major to bachelor of science in psychology, thinking it would be better and save me from having to leave the sciences, I still felt out of place. It was not until I took one English class that completely changed my perspective: creative writing, which was taught by Professor Janet McNally. We wrote stories in class, read stories by various authors and studied writing – most importantly, I found community there. There were people all around me who were passionate about writing and literature, as well as Professor McNally herself, who encouraged me to fully pursue my passion in English. 

When I consider the narrative that humanities degrees are a waste, I’m confused because there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I love this article I read last year called “To Be a Good Doctor, Study the Humanities,” which was written by Angira Patel, a pediatric and fetal cardiology doctor. Dr. Patel begins the article by discussing the case of a three-year-old who was diagnosed with a brain tumor known as medulloblastoma, which typically forms in the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for balance, posture and motor learning. All odds were against the child's survival, and they passed. Dr. Patel, who was only a resident at the time and new to death, spoke about the grief she felt not only for the family but also for the physician; even when she later became the doctor in charge, she discussed the heavy responsibility of informing families of deaths. She goes on to discuss her undergraduate major – philosophy – and how it held the same value as her science classes. She stated, “As a philosophy major in college before medical school, I believe I learned what it means to be a good doctor equally from my humanities classes as from my science classes. Studying the humanities helps students develop critical-thinking skills, understand viewpoints of different cultures, foster a just conscience, build a capacity for empathy, and become wise about emotions such as grief and loss. These characteristics define a good doctor.” In the medical field, there is often a perception that there is no room for the humanities; however, as someone who has been working in the healthcare system for five years, I have found that in my brief time working in the hospital, humanities skills are necessary. They are not only necessary for grieving families, but doctors, residents and healthcare workers in general need these qualities from the humanities. Dr. Patel even mentions a study that discovered that the more doctors are exposed to the humanities, the less likely they are to experience negative mental states such as physical and emotional exhaustion. 

In the time I have been working in the hospital, the things I have seen have been completely traumatizing. But how much more traumatizing is it for our doctors? The medical profession, in particular, is becoming more dissatisfactory as a result of constant burnout, resulting in an increasing number of unhappy doctors, which has a direct impact on patient care. It’s about more than just treating just patients, it's about taking care of the people who treat the patients. Yes, science is important but you’re not just treating a disease; you’re treating a patient – a human being. The reason I am emphasizing the importance of humanities in healthcare is to demonstrate how something perceived as insignificant, such as the humanities, has and will continue to drive a healthier lifestyle and environment in one of the most stressful environments in the world – a hospital. Ivy League universities continue to release articles explaining why they now prefer more students to apply to medical schools who have undergraduate degrees in the humanities to become doctors than students with science degrees because students in the humanities foster a more empathetic approach to interactions with patients. 

The humanities are more important than ever in this rapidly changing world. Your degrees in English, philosophy, fine arts and all of the above hold weight in the real world. We need more people willing to pursue various career sectors with humanities degrees, not limited to healthcare; we need more people who have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a human being and want to foster that value within the world around them.

-RM