However, even with all these choices, there are still many biases that pit fields of study against each other. Most notably: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the humanities, or arts.
A father proved that the STEM vs Arts bias is still alive and well by refusing to pay for his daughter’s English degree.
“I sat down with Jane last night and told her that if she decided to go with the English course, I would not support her and that she would have to take out her own student loan,” the father wrote in a post on Reddit. to the “r/AmITheA–Hole” subReddit.
This subreddit is dedicated to sharing conflicts and allowing the poster to receive feedback or advice about the situation from other users acting as a neutral third party.
This father shared his conflict with his daughter, Jane, about her chosen graduation path and her role in funding it.
He begins by explaining that his 21-year-old daughter has been accepted to the college of her dreams before adding, “…the only thing is, Jane has been accepted to take an English course.”
Compared to Jane’s two older brothers, Mark and Leo, who are 28 and 30 respectively and are now well-paid doctors, Jane was a late bloomer in pursuing her education.
When she was 18, her family encouraged her to start looking at schools, but Jane “claimed she wasn’t ready and wanted a ‘little break'”. hanging out with friends and traveling all last year with her boyfriend.”
All of these efforts were paid for by her father, and now that she was feeling ready to re-enter the world of education, her parents offered to pay her tuition, on one condition.
“We made her promise that when she applied to university, it would be for a worthwhile degree.”
The father explained his reasoning behind such a promise, claiming that his daughter was going through “a weird phase” where she wanted to pursue more creative careers.
He clearly didn’t value those dreams and expected her to settle for a “really useful degree”, but Jane apparently had her mind.
“Fast forward a year later and we find that Jane went behind our backs and applied for an English degree.”
The father was frustrated with Jane’s decision to “be herself” as he put it, and sat his daughter down to explain that if she didn’t change her degree to something more suitable, he would remove his financial support and force her to take out her own loan. student.
“With that, she burst into tears claiming that I was the ‘worst father ever’ and always favored her brothers over her (because I had paid her college tuition).” Her father claimed that this was not true, as he had paid all her travel expenses, and his request for her was not unreasonable.
His children, however, felt that he was being too harsh and that he should support their daughter’s education, regardless of grade.
In the final comments, the father stated that he was not making his choices out of machismo. He wrote: “I want her to do something useful she can live with instead of depending on me for the rest of her life. I don’t even know if this is something she really wants to do or if it’s just another way of trying to rebel against me.”
The English majors on Reddit didn’t think that reason was a good enough excuse.
One user wrote: “[You are The A–hole]. If it was because you paid an equal amount for her travels as her brother’s education I would say [not the a–hole]. But because she chose a course that you “disapprove of,” you are punishing her.”
Dozens of commenters with English degrees flocked to the thread to point out the father’s clear underestimation of the humanities degree, citing his impactful work in many different fields.
“I’ve been a librarian for ten years and I’ve helped thousands of people,” wrote one user, and another joined in the conversation to share that he’s dedicated his career to teaching English to low-income immigrants. “I changed the lives of thousands and thousands of people.”
Another cited his income from an English degree: “Signing in like another English student who made 160k last year. I’m a program manager for a software company.”
These answers and more show that a degree in a humanities field like English is in no way inherently worthless or inferior to a medical degree.
In fact, soft skills such as critical thinking, creative and technical writing, speaking, and analytical skills covered in humanities courses are often essential in the workforce. They can give an employee an advantage that others may not have, even if their degree is in medicine or engineering.
The arts are often underappreciated, underfunded and neglected, but that doesn’t make them worthless. One person’s passion can turn any degree into a thriving career, and an English degree has as much potential to make a difference as any other.
Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer based in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.