At my grandmother’s eightieth birthday party I was sucked into a conversation with my grandfather that I will never forget. He is definitely not the kind of person to conceal his opinion. Unfortunately, he is of the same mindset as many others that the study of English in a college or university will not get you anywhere, make you any money off of which to live. “Have you thought about the sciences?” He’d asked me. “You know, they’re giving out a lot of scholarships for women to go into engineering and things like that.” Yeah, Grandpa, I know.
I suppose he was only worried, but what he didn’t seem to understand is that the study of English is interdisciplinary. As referenced in Joe Moran’s Interdisciplinarity, the American education system has constructed a poor system for the study of English, labeling it as a singular discipline, a “science” of its own. This is true for all of the disciplines, or majors (as called by the universities), which have been divided. Moran references British literary critic F. R. Leavis, who states that specialization in one field allows a more complete and precise knowledge of the discipline, however, English must be regarded as “necessarily interdisciplinary” (Moran 26).
These chasms between the disciplines, I believe, injure a student’s ability to be well-rounded, and as an English student, one must be. English includes the study of literature and society, and to do so one must understand the world in which he or she is living. Said chasms also are detrimental to the acceptance of all disciplines. English is looked down upon in some regards. Every “major” has acquired some sort of stereotype or reputation, and this dissuades some from dipping their hands into a healthy variety of information.
I am certain that my grandfather only wants the best for me; he believes in the deepest corners of his soul that I would have a more prosperous life if I were to major in another discipline, one that the majority of the population appears to deem as “useful”. However, as English itself is such an interdisciplinary subject naturally, would that not open up a variety of opportunities in life after graduation?