Whether your major is pre-med, engineering, botany, art or underwater basket-weaving, I urge you to read this column.
If you are enrolling, or even if you have already enrolled, I challenge you to take a moment to think about taking a classics and letters course. In the next paragraphs, I want to provide some important insight as to what classics and letters majors do, and why it is important to you.
Many of you reading this article are enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences. Have you ever wondered why we call it Arts and Sciences?
It comes to us from Latin. Ars is the Latin word for “skill,” or “craft.” Its plural is Artes. Scientia means “knowledge.”
So when you talk about the College of Arts and Sciences, you’re really referring to the College of Skills and Knowledge.
Many of us here at OU will be graduating or have already graduated with a liberal arts degree. What on earth does that mean?
In today’s colloquial vernacular one might think that if you major in “liberal” “arts” you might be an artist who works for the Democratic Party.
Although being a liberal artist might be an appealing profession for many, a liberal arts degree is a very different thing indeed.
“Liberal” is derived from the Latin verb liberare, meaning “to free,” or “to liberate.” The adjective liber comes from this, which means “free.” This was further evolved to the word liberalis which literally means “pertaining to a free man.”
Romans thought that liberty was a noble and praiseworthy value, so therefore Liberalis came to mean “noble,” or “generous.”
So when you tell people that you have a liberal arts degree, tell them instead that you in fact have a degree in Noble Skills. I don’t mean noble as aristocratic, but noble as something virtuous and honorable.
And it should be considered honorable; you hold a degree which has given you “liberating skills.” And what should these skills liberate you from? The shackles of ignorance.
The skills which will liberate you are the ones which will stay with you the rest of your life. Through classics and letters you may not study the organelles of a prokaryotic cell or the specifics of business theory.
Instead you will learn the arts of rhetoric, oratory, analysis, critical thinking, skilled writing and historical perspective. Beyond that, you will be exposed to the timeless works of some of the finest thinkers who have ever walked the planet.
How about learning the lessons of leadership through the works of Plutarch, Thucydides, Aristotle and other great minds?
What about the advantages of learning an ancient language? Have you ever considered it? If you were to only take one single semester of Latin, you would have easily recognized every word which I defined earlier in this article.
If you were to take two semesters of Latin, you would be equipped to translate Latin text. Did you know that already in our third semester of Latin in the classics and letters department we translate Latin poetry and prose?
The same applies to Greek. In only two semesters of Greek you could sit down with a small pocket dictionary and read anything from Plato to the New Testament in their original languages.
So what does that mean to you? Maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all. It’s entirely possible that you don’t care that 60 percent of the English language is derived from Greek and Latin.
How does that apply to you, the future doctor or engineer? Maybe it would benefit you to know that 90 percent of the language you will use in the technological and scientific fields is of Latin and Greek origin. Do I have your attention?
Maybe language is not your thing, or perhaps it doesn’t fit with your Gen Ed requirements. If so, you can take a variety of other classes in classics and letters in English.
Or take Survey of Roman Civilization and learn about the society which has influenced western civilization more than any other.
Interested in literature? Take Classical Influences on Modern Literature, and finally understand some of those crazy literary allusions and metaphors.
You can afford to take a class which will help widen your perspective for the rest of your life.
Whenever I tell someone that my major is letters, I am either met with a blank stare and the question “What’s letters?” or “Ah, so you’re going to law school, eh?”
Although letters is an excellent pre-law degree, it is so much more than simply that.
A letters major will usually tell a person, when asked what his or her major is, that it is a combination of philosophy, literature, history and languages, but that’s as far as they go.
Let me finish this article by explaining why we learn these things:
We learn philosophy to understand logic and reason, and the wisdom of great minds.
We study literature to comprehend and appreciate the artistry of the written word.
We read history so that we may stand in the present and look back on what has been, to learn from the success, and avoid the mistakes of our predecessors.
We learn these things because they should be learned, for the benefit of the mind, for the individual and for a healthy society.
The OU Classics and Letters Department is posting an ad in the paper throughout the week. I invite you to take a look for yourself, and take a class which could be the best you’ve had at OU.
Tucker Cross is a letters junior.
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Cambrian 2 years, 5 months ago
While I agree that some of the classes you mention sound interesting, the major itself is worthless in the working world. Haven't you ever seen the movie Adventureland? The main character was a classics major in college and he ends up working at an amusement park over the summer because he's "not even qualified for manual labor." It may be a movie, but I think there's some truth to that. Most employers don't give a crap about you being able to speak latin or reiterate an ancient battle. They care about whether you are going to make them money.
Also, you do realize that many ancient philosophers were completely or partially incorrect about science in most aspects? So why not bypass the bullcorn and go straight to the source by taking a science or math class? I guarantee it will look a heck of a lot better on a resume or CV.
patt5982 2 years, 5 months ago
I completely disagree with the previous comment. First of all you cannot base anything off a movie. Second, Latin and Greek are two very important languages in our system. Especially Latin, which is 60% of the English language. Also, the grammar you use in Latin will help you more in all your other classes because you understand the construction of a sentence. By taking a Latin or Greek course, you will get a small classroom size, one on one interaction with the professor, and you are learning something that might not be directly useful, but indirectly it makes everything else make sense.
Plus, how many majors will get you into a specific field. Most English majors don't graduate and start writing novels. Most math majors don't go to be mathmeticians. Most science majors do not go on to be chemists or botanists. Most history majors do not go on to be historians. The list goes on with psychology, communications, and many other majors.
The truth is many people will try to go onto graduate school where Latin and Greek are needed more. Several people will go into teaching at a public school. Most people will get a job not related to their major at all. All that matters is what kind of effort you are willing to put into your task. Employers are looking for a Bachelor's degree not a specific major. They are looking for hardwork and determination. Out of the several majors at this university, Classics and Letters majors show the most determination. I'm not saying that other majors are wrong; all I am saying is to consider taking a Latin, Greek, or classical cultures course. You won't regret the information you will learn.
oumotorcyclist 2 years, 5 months ago
from patt5982:
"Plus, how many majors will get you into a specific field. Most English majors don't graduate and start writing novels. Most math majors don't go to be mathmeticians. Most science majors do not go on to be chemists or botanists. Most history majors do not go on to be historians. The list goes on with psychology, communications, and many other majors."
I think that you are forgetting to factor in that many people who declare majors like mathematics, chemistry, and botany as freshmen don't actually end up getting degrees in those things. I know from my experience in the Physics and Engineering Departments that the weed out rate is about 50% after 3 years (for Physics, at least. Engineering's rate might be a bit lower). I'm pretty sure that of the people who finish these degrees, such as myself, only a small minority enter into fields that do not require having an engineering or hard science degree. Call it arrogance, but I know how much work I put into getting my degree, and I would not have made it through if I thought I was going to be doing something not related to what I was studying.
I agree that a balanced education is important, and toward that end I enrolled in a wide variety of non-science courses to fulfill my Gen-Ed and related requirements, but I don't think that you will ever convince me that "out of the several majors at this university, Classics and Letters majors show the most determination."
patt5982 2 years, 5 months ago
I agree with what you are saying about certain majors. I am also a mechanical engineering major. I never mentioned engineering majors because I know how much work engineers put into a degree. This is a degree that is setup to become an engineer. I was referring to the college of arts and sciences where you have a lot of free electives, but if you talk to a Classics or Letters major, you will see how intellegent their conversations are. They are not repeating a process over and over. Instead, they look at 2000+ year old text, and they look at how they can apply the meaning to their life.