Lately, in the heated call for greater STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education at every level, the traditional liberal arts have been needlessly, indeed recklessly, portrayed as the villain. And STEM fields have been (falsely) portrayed as the very opposite of the liberal arts.

The detractors of the liberal arts (who usually mean, by liberal arts, “humanities”) tend to argue that STEM-based education trains for careers while non-STEM training does not; they are often suspicious of the liberal political agenda of some disciplines. And they deem the content of a liberal arts education to be no longer relevant. The author of a recent article simply titled, “The Liberal Arts are Dead; Long Live STEM conveyed this sentiment when he said, “Science is better for society than the arts.”

I see this misunderstanding even at my own institution, as a humanist who oversees pre-major advising and thus engages with students and faculty (and parents) from all over the university. The idea that STEM is something separate and different than the liberal arts is damaging to both the sciences and their sister disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Pro-STEM attitudes assume that the liberal arts are quaint, impractical, often elitist, and always self-indulgent, while STEM fields are practical, technical, and represent at once “the future” and “proper earning potential.”

STEM is part of liberal arts

First, let’s be clear: This is a false and misleading dichotomy. STEM disciplines are a part of the liberal arts. Math and science are liberal arts.

In the ancient and medieval world, when the liberal arts as we know them began to take shape, they comprised grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (the last three we would count as STEM disciplines today; and music, dealing mostly with numerical relationships through sound, was really more akin to what we would today call physics).

Advocates of STEM are missing the point. The value of a liberal arts education is not in the content that is taught, but rather in the mode of teaching and in the intellectual skills that are gained by learning how to think systematically and rigorously.

These intellectual skills include how to assess assumptions; develop strategies from problem solving; test ideas against evidence; use reason to grapple with information to come to new conclusions; and develop courses of action to pursue those conclusions.

Yes, some disciplines might prepare for certain types of problem solving (how do I get a computer to integrate information from two different consumer data platforms in the most elegant fashion?) more strongly than others (what do I recommend to investors based upon my French-language research of markets in Madagascar?).

And some areas of knowledge might be more useful than others in certain industries.

But in all cases, the point of the liberal arts approach is to learn how to think, not simply what to know – especially since information itself is now so easily acquired through Google and the smartphone. If anything, content is too abundant for any single individual to master. What is much more important is knowing what on Earth to do with the glut of information available in most situations.

And here is where the liberal arts training comes in.

A liberal arts education (STEM-based or otherwise) is not just about learning content, but about knowing how to sort through ambiguity; work with inexact or incomplete information, evaluate contexts and advance a conclusion or course of action.

In other words, it is not about learning the prescription to achieve a textbook result. It is about having the intellectual capacity to attack those issues for which there is yet no metaphorical text or answer.

Is liberal arts the choice of the elite?
Now, let us take up the elephant in the room. Many people would argue an engineering degree balanced with some English courses might be a nice idea.

But for a student to major in English or studio art is sheer craziness. What does one do with a studio art degree except become a starving artist? What does one do with an English degree except wait tables?

Those who make such arguments usually conflate “liberal arts” with “humanities,” those disciplines that do not have an obvious “end career goal” or a “remuneration outcome” at the other side of the college degree.

When detractors hear educators like me say that “the liberal arts” are valuable, they understand us to mean that they fulfill something in the core of our souls. That is, that the humanities are personally and intellectually valuable, but not remuneratively so.

They hear us acknowledge that the humanities are decidedly not practical, and are thus are the purview of the elite and privileged who can afford to indulge in them. But, of course, the idea that the only remunerative professions out there are in science and technology is silly.

Whole industries do in fact exist that are not based on STEM premises: media, consulting, fashion, finance, publishing, education, government and other forms of public service are just a few.

And even those reputedly “tech” industries that STEM advocates see as our future (IT, health, energy) require all sorts of nontechnical employees to get their companies to work.

Further, basic communication, speaking and writing skills are absolute must-haves of anyone who is going to climb the ladder in any high-tech industry.

What defines success
That said, the so-called “practical” major (and I reject the designation) might have a more obvious, path to the entry level job of a solid career. This is only because the major has an apparently known professional pathway.

But that does not guarantee success in that field.

In fact, those other disciplines that detractors of the liberal arts (read: humanities) assume are dead ends could well be fantastic springboards to amazing professional lives.

They are not a guarantee of one – and neither is a STEM degree. But they give those students who have committed seriously to the study of excelling within their college discipline (be it classics, anthropology, or theoretical physics) the capacity and the ability to achieve one.

Why we need a liberal arts education
Let us return to my earlier point about STEM disciplines.

We should not only accept that they are part of a liberal arts education, but we must understand that teaching them within a liberal arts framework makes the financial investment of learning them of greater value.

Peter Robbie, an engineering professor at Dartmouth College who teaches human centered design, explains why liberal education is so critical to engineering training. He said in an email to me that:

creative design process of engineering provides the means for complex, multidisciplinary problem-solving. We need to educate leaders who can solve the ‘wicked problems’ facing society (like obesity, climate change, and inequality). These are multifactorial problems that can’t be solved within a single domain but will need liberally-educated, expansive thinkers who are comfortable in many fields.
As we know, an engineer who has basic cultural competency skills (honed, for instance, through cultural studies) will be an attractive asset for an American engineering firm trying to branch out in China.

Likewise, a doctor who knows how to listen to patients will be a better primary care doctor than one who only knows the memorizable facts from medical school. This is one reason that medical schools have recently changed the requirements of application to encourage coursework in sociology and psychology.

It is the ability to use these skills honed by different types of thinking in various contexts that allows people to build beyond their particular ken.

And that is what a liberal arts education – science, technology, humanities and social sciences – trains. It prepares students for rich, creative, meaningful and, yes, remunerative, careers.

Middle East Crisis Looms Over Election, Associated Press
The conflict between Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah continues to affect the Jewish, Arab, and Muslim vote as Harris attempts to balance her distributed support and Trump claims the conflict wouldn’t have happened under him.

Harris, Trump Dead Heat in Swing States, Reuters
Harris and Trump are neck and neck in seven battleground states. Harris leads in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, while Trump leads in North Carolina, and they are tied in Nevada

Is Musk’s Giveaway Election Interference?, Al Jazeera
Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to swing state voters who sign a pro-Trump petition faces legal scrutiny since it could violate election laws on voter inducement.

Campaign Divides Famous Philly Deli, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Philly’s Hymie’s Deli faced backlash after appearing in a pro-Trump ad for the Republican Jewish Coalition, with owner Louis Barson clarifying he’d also welcome Harris’ campaign

They Lost It All, but Still Voting, Politico
Voters in western North Carolina, many still reeling from Hurricane Helene’s devastation, showed up for early voting, with both parties scrambling to mobilize support amid the wreckage.

The Chronically Underestimated Harris, National Review
Despite critics labeling Harris a “dunce,” her billion-dollar fundraising, political savvy, and undefeated record reveal her underestimated rise and potential path to the presidency.

Should Kamala Harris have attended the Al Smith dinner?
56.8% – No
43.2% – Yes
*Percentage of 27,738 votes

But in watching Harris and Cheney yesterday, I thought one could see glimpses not just of a defensive struggle, but of a better future, a future superior to the politics of recent decades, a future in which ossified ideologies would begin to break apart, in which younger leaders would seek not just common ground but fresh solutions to neglected problems, and new opportunities for all of us.

I thought one could sense that we are fighting not just against something, but for something.

A $160 million super PAC spending spree is set to give the industry an army of allies in the House and Senate, and across party lines.

As many as 13 new pro-crypto candidates could ascend to seats in the House next year with backing from the industry’s network of super PACs, which have spent big to promote allies and block critics in races across the country. The potential House members range from progressive Democrats who tout digital assets as a tool for financial inclusion to Republicans who bash the Biden administration’s crypto policy and say the technology can create “economic freedom.”

The Senate is expected to gain several pro-crypto members, including Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and John Curtis (R-Utah), who are all but guaranteed to win races in their respective states. Republicans in nearly every key battleground Senate contest are crypto proponents, meaning that any seats the GOP flips will deliver a new ally.

Not everyone needs to go to college, but turning away from traditional learning, especially in high school, poses a threat to the intellectual depth necessary for whatever paths we choose in life.

Not everyone achieves college-level skills, but as a nation we have come closer than ever to that goal, with great benefits for our country. The World Bank summarizes all the ways higher rates and levels of education make a difference — innovation and growth, productivity and wages, civic engagement and even health.

Nonetheless, the massive wage gap — a 60% difference by age 55 — between those who complete at least four years of college and those who don’t is real. And many of the occupations on the government’s list of fastest-growing jobs require not just a bachelor’s but a master’s degree. I also find it ironic that the push to deemphasize college comes as we better understand how to make more students and K-12 schools into “high performers” academically.