The Argumentive Paper Against Liberal Arts Education
As time goes on, the job market is becoming more complicated due to the developed society that has moved toward technology and automation. Parents want to ensure they are spending money on an education that will bring their child a career. Specifically, parents want their children to have a career that is both rewarding and allows the child to develop self-sufficiency. After all, for a student to spend 4-5 years studying and parents to invest in their education, the desired outcome is a career path that the student can enjoy and eventually become self-sufficient in. Further, a focused education is more beneficial than a liberal arts education for three reasons: higher income opportunities, greater job openings with skills the student acquired in college, and students are more likely to work in the field they trained in.
To begin with, focused education has greater salary opportunity. Michelle Singletary’s article states that engineering majors earn $55,000 a year and majors in the arts have a salary of around $30,000 a year (Singletary 15). Even though jobs are plentiful in the field of education and social work, the earnings are still much lower. According to the article, despite having experience and graduate degrees, salaries are not boosted. It is practical to consider the earning levels of a major the student chooses because it can leave a student with a hundred thousand dollars in debt.
The second point of the importance of focused education is due to greater job demand for specific skills. Automation and technology are taking part in every career field. Even most college educations are no longer delivered with paper and pencil. Students, instead, must have knowledge of using websites and power points. Students cannot interact in most industries without computer knowledge and phones. When devices break or malfunction, students must quickly figure out how to fix things or else they are dependent on others, which takes away valuable time. Moreover, the Hard Times report mentions that “not surprisingly, unemployment rates are generally higher in non-technical majors, such as the arts (11.1%), humanities and liberal arts (9.4%), social science (8.9%), and law and public policy percent (8.1%)” (Singletary 18-19).
Focused education is more beneficial due to the fact that students can work in jobs they received training in while in college. Many liberal arts graduates find themselves working in fields completely unrelated to their majors. In fact, students with focused education are more likely to obtain jobs in their fields of study. According to Alex Tabarrok’s article, there is no problem with studying the arts, psychology, and journalism. However, it is important to note that graduates of these fields are less likely to find a job and get paid a decent wage. Furthermore, graduates of the humanities fail to end up in jobs that actually require their educational focus (Tabarro 250).
Focused education includes more STEM subjects that can lead to higher paying jobs. However, liberal arts education can develop critical thinking and educating students in general knowledge. Liberal education is the most sufficient way for a person to become a broader thinker. Liberal education can broaden one’s horizons and help a student learn about different cultures, customs, and ways of life. This can help a person to be more accepting of other people’s thoughts. It can expose students to the joy of learning for the sake of learning and not necessarily for a specific outcome. They do not narrow themselves to one specific job field, which opens the door to many more job opportunities. Furthermore; there are different kinds of liberal art majors, some are less paying and some are higher.
In conclusion, focused education is the ticket for many successful and high paying jobs. Focused education is more beneficial than liberal arts education because job opportunities are more plentiful. A student can apply their skills they studied 4 years or more to a job using these skills, and they can move ahead in the next chapter of life in their field of specialty chosen and develop expertise in the years ahead. Finally, there is no disadvantage to being able to pay off your student loans, live in your own apartment and not back home, and be paid a salary that provides self sufficiency.
