I think I just coined a new term. Google just came up with no hits, so I think I’m safe.
It’s been on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t quite come up with the word.
I considered multimajorism, but I think multimajoralism has a better ring to it, and more accurately conveys the meaning I’m after.
The Arts and Humanities people are probably two steps ahead of me, but for the STEM folks, I’ll explain.
Multimajoralism is the belief that all majors are created equal, and that all majors will lead to equal outcomes. This extends to nontraditional and student crafted majors.
This is in no way meant to offend anyone, or make anyone feel uncomfortable, or excluded, as multimajoralism is in fact an attempt to be all-inclusive, and supportive of all majors and all points of view.
Just messing with you guys I’m thankful that I have people here who force me to think in new and different ways.
Fortunately, there is already a great term in the English language to describe what parents feel when their child graduates with a degree in XZY vocational area and cannot get a job in that field. It’s called Cognitive Dissonance, and it leads to the bashing of History or Literature majors- who may in fact end up working at that ad agency at which your kid- the Advertising and Communications Major- can’t get hired. It describes the frustration that parents and kids feel when the Finance major graduates during a major banking and corporate recession, and it describes the anger that parents feel when they’ve taken on a boatload of debt to pay for the Petroleum Engineering degree just as the kid graduates into an energy pullback. Leading to even more anger at the liberal arts grads- many of whom are still getting hired by consumer products companies (market research, brand management, HR jobs) or insurance companies (sales, claims servicing, marketing, business development).
Cognitive Dissonance. They teach it at colleges with strong humanities and psych departments. And I didn’t even need to Google it.
I agree with your assessment of the durability of a liberal arts (nonvocational) major, but that’s not an accurate description of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is when you bring your thoughts or beliefs in line with your behavior so as to reduce “dissonance” between the two—even at the cost of harboring false or ridiculous beliefs. For example, an individual who smokes may be uncomfortable with the 'dissonance" between his behavior (smoking) and the knowledge that smoking is unhealthy. To relieve the discomfort of the dissonance, the individual takes a stance that the studies showing the relationship between smoking and a lung cancer are flawed, or that you have to die of something anyway so smoking doesn’t matter.
Never mind. Failed attempt at humor. The political correctness around here towards majors reminds me of multiculturalism. That’s what I was trying to get at.
[ul]
[]When comparing something to “underwater basket-weaving” is the ultimate major-al slur
[]When the media is increasingly filled with documentaries seeking to remove the mystery and stereotypes behind humanities majors, and family sitcoms exalting parents who raise their kids to value the arts from a young age
[]When the debate over whether colleges should have quotas for certain majors is raging
[]When STEM majors can freely come out of the closet about their humanities minors (double majors are another story, but we’re making progress)
[]When the “liberal” arts majors won’t rest until there is equal representation of all majors in the workforce (STEM fields in particular tend to discriminate)
[]When self-made majors reject the STEM-humanities binary
[]When treating your Psychology major friend like he’s your therapist or asking an English major if she is going to become a teacher is a micro-aggression
[]When graduation requirements such as mathematics and science reinforce steel-grey, largely-male, cis-“education is preparation for the workforce” dominance and disadvantage everyone else
[li]But, you know, “not all STEM majors”[/li][/ul]
This is actually a cool parallel. #allmajorsmatter
“When self-made majors reject the STEM-humanities binary”
and
“When treating your Psychology major friend like he’s your therapist or asking an English major if she is going to become a teacher is a micro-aggression”
Give me a break. “Political correctness”. Just because you came up with something no one else agrees is worth something does not mean we care about that. Tossing terms is junk.
I’m not sure I completely understand what you mean, but let me explain what I meant.
When I said political correctness, I was referring to the feeling I got when I was in certain threads. That you couldn’t say you preferred certain majors over others without worrying about insulting someone. Like we can’t say major A is a “better major” than major B because we might hurt someone’s feelings.
It just reminds of political correctness in other areas of life. That’s it.
As far as coining new terms - I don’t take myself that seriously. I wasn’t really saying I coined a new term - I was just trying to be funny, and make a point. It clearly didn’t work
Plus I was a STEM major, and STEM majors have no business coining new terms. We just do the grunt work for the “big idea” guys who run the joint
It has nothing to do wth “hurting someone’s feelings” - it has to do with the presence of often clueless, robotic-like members of the CC community who are so narrow in scope they don’t see any value whatsoever in anything other than STEM, and are kind of oblivious to history, philosophy, art, music, literature. These are the same people who “wonder” why they start off making more and then plateau, because there’s no concept of what it takes to have a big picture.
Creativity is needed for research in STEM fields. Whoever said people in science can’t do anything anyone else can do??? I know too many people who are good at everything but chose to major in a science to feel that’s all we can do. btw- in my Honors Chemistry classes we had to read a book each semester and write a paper on it (Silent Spring and The Double Helix- both relevant recent books for the early 1970’s). The STEM people I know have many interests outside their fields. I will admit to being biased because it seems as though we are supposed to be more well versed in everything else while the nonscience people can lack knowledge in sciences. I never hear about any fascination with any math or science fields like I know people who know arts and humanities et al.
How many parents with science related professions are oblivious on CC? I see too many students following stereotypic thinking instead. And don’t claim it is Asians- H and others of Indian origin we know definitely have affinities for a wide range of areas, even those of the generation educated under the memorization of the British system.
Finally, some of us don’t worry about stepping on toes, especially when ours keep getting stepped on by others who can’t see outside their box/comfort zone.
My husband majored in Engineering. He was an engineer for while, then he went to law school.
He is one of the most creative and artistic people I know. He is an avid watercolor painter, photographer, and also plays piano, guitar and drums.
He is also very broad-minded and had no problem with his older daughter majoring in Theater, and his younger daughter planning to major in History or Anthropology.
He has never considered their plans to be a waste of his money or their time.
He has never belittled me because I majored in Comparative Literature. (btw I had to take a few science courses and Statistics)
But, there seems to be a faction on CC who believe if you don’t choose a STEM or Business-related major, you may as well not even bother going to college and taking up space that is more deserving of future engineers, computer scientists or money movers.
These are apparently not the broad-minded STEM folks like yourself and my husband, who seem to get that it takes all types to make the world go round.
“But, there seems to be a faction on CC who believe if you don’t choose a STEM or Business-related major, you may as well not even bother going to college and taking up space that is more deserving of future engineers, computer scientists or money movers.”
Wow, I have just not entered those threads. I see parents talking about the plethora of interests and talents their kids have, and other posters talking of their children as medievalists (I’m looking for that poster, btw), and kids getting help on how to pursue majors as creative writers and in musical theater. STEM talks have their place when that is what the kids are seeking help with, but I have enjoyed the times when people encourage other people to multimajor, so to speak.
I’m thankful that I have people here who force me to think in new and different ways.
