Nicky Morgan Has a Point

Based on my education, you could call me an ‘arts’ student through and through, and I wouldn’t complain. I said goodbye to all STEM subjects at the first opportunity possible and followed the path that is generally sneered at by politicians quizzed on the matter. It’s not that I was bad at STEM subjects – I did as well as I could have in my GCSEs – I was just better at humanities subjects and found them more fulfilling. 

When Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan recently suggested that the arts aren’t a great breeding ground for the buds of a career, I wasn’t surprised to see many of my university friends (mostly arts students) piping up to condemn her. Heck, I wanted to do it myself. But, having thought about it, I’ve realised that it isn’t the worst advice ever. 

I have some fantastic memories from studying a degree in English Literature but one that has stuck with me from my final year is sitting in a lecture theatre thinking: “How will Allen Ginsberg help me in two months’ time when I’m unemployed?”

As things played out, I actually started working for a publishing house just five days after my final university exam – but I attribute a lot of that to the work experience I organised for myself in the five years between doing my GCSEs and leaving higher education. My academic studies helped develop my writing and analytical skills, but they wouldn’t have stood up on their own in an interview.  

That’s not to say that people shouldn’t choose to study the arts. Five years of intense reading, whether it was literary theory, human history or drama, taught me huge amounts about the way we interact with one another as members of a functioning society. Thinking about it, studying existentialism probably put entering the chaos and uncertainty of the job market into context. But it was also worth keeping in mind that the hi-tech library that allowed me to reserve a book, read it digitally and use it as part of a bound dissertation was a result of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In the grand scheme of things, studying the arts is a huge game of chance. Many of my class became teachers – some because they wanted to and others because they weren't sure what else to do. Please note, I am not slagging off teaching as a profession! Others are doing things that they wouldn't want to shout about. When you strip everything back, the arts are a luxury. But they are also essential. Go back to the basics of society, and the first valuable thing a human can do is provide food and shelter. Engineering.

In the modern age, we have banking systems, skyscrapers and road networks,  all being monitored for efficiencies. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

But, of course, Neanderthal had cave paintings. Ancient Greece had mythology. For as long as society has existed, we have needed storytellers and interpreters. But those roles within society are limited and not everyone gets to the podium to speak. 

So, perhaps Nicky Morgan is right. If you want wider options when entering the world of work, STEM subjects are for you. If you aren’t afraid to fail, be realistic and back your own ability, then choose the arts. Just don’t complain when you have no idea how to troubleshoot your car breaking down. 

I dare say that Nicky Morgan does value the arts. Her words were unfortunate but not unexpected at an event launching a campaign to encourage teenagers to opt for STEM subjects. If I had been faced with tuition fees of £9k a year when choosing my future, I would have given STEM subjects more thought.

However, to think that someone would choose that path ahead of their desire to study the arts is saddening, particularly in a day and age when the vast majority have become socially mobile enough that they can pursue their ambitions in life, whatever they may be. So, with that in mind, I’ll conclude with a quote from the narrator of Dickens’ Hard Times. It would be worthwhile for politicians to give it a read before they discredit the arts so readily:

“It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but not all the calculators of the National debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse.”