After reading the first chapter of Moran’s Interdisciplinarity, I was not only taken back by the low expectations society and professionals had for English as a subject, but whole heartedly angered by it.
Throughout my lifetime, I heard repetitively, “English is so easy” and “Math and Science are hard.” Over and over again these statements were drilled into our brains, so much so that I found myself saying them. I believed that English was easier and I struggled in Math and Science, partly because psychologically I believed that English was the “Mickey Mouse subject” – that it was an easy option. But there came a point after I graduated that I actually had to work very hard in English, in fact just as hard as I did in the Maths and Sciences. There became a point when I was challenged in English, challenged with new ideologies and challenged with “outside of the box interpretations.” But as I rose to these challenges, I began to be confident in my knowledge and interpretations in English courses – suddenly I felt like I knew what I was talking about. I began to challenge ideologies and social constructs instead of just considering them.
To read that English as a subject wasn’t accepted as a real area of study until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is quite disappointing but believable. Modernly, myself and my fellow students get interrogated as to why we value English as a subject or why we are even investing time in an English course. We are in the twenty-first century and we are still facing the stereotypical ideologies that were clearly present in centuries before us (so much for progress right?) But we have made progress! At least modernly I don’t have to listen to, “‘What do you say to an English graduate? Big Mac and Fries, please.'”
As a college student and prospective English teacher, I know how important the subject of English is. From our earliest years to later in adult life, it is a subject that begins and builds on a foundation. There are so many different possible paths to take with a background in English and interdisciplinarity allows literally anyone to be able to communicate within disciplines other than English. In a sense, English is the underdog of subjects – there are very low expectations for its versatility and yet it’s present in our everyday lives on every level of its existence.