“Liberal arts” and “well-rounded” are the default terms of most boarding boarding schools- the bases for their educational structures and curricula. After all, parents are paying to position the kids for college preparation and admittance. But boarding schools prove quite limited and narrow shaped by the biases of academia and college admission. How about adding physical work- labor- to the definition of well-rounded?

Two recent articles articulate and make the case that perhaps the liberal arts aren’t necessarily the best career/life options for everyone- giving due and respect to labor and those who serve and work with their hands:

Mike Rose’s Blue-Collar Brilliance: Questioning assumptions about intelligence, work, and social class (American Scholar) Subscription Only

Matthew B. Crawford’s The Case for Working With Your Hands (The New York Times Magazine)

First, let me say that I’m all for academic pursuits across the board- hard sciences, liberal arts, social sciences, and fine arts. But, as a teacher, administrator, and in my own work, I’ve experienced the limitations and blind pursuit of the liberal arts first hand.

…Our culture- in cartesian fashion- separates the body from the mind so that, for example, we assume the use of a tool does not involve abstract thinking.  We reinforce this notion by defining intelligence solely on grades in school and numbers on IQ tests. And we employ social biases pertaining to a person’s place on the occupational ladder…Although we rightly acknowledge and amply compensate the play of mind in white-collar and professional work, we diminish or erase it in considerations about other endeavors- physical and service work particularly. We also often ignore the experience of everyday work in administrative deliberations….(Rose)

Recalling a comment from 25+ years ago, ‘boarding schools are very good at teaching kids to work with their heads. But, they’re not very good at teaching kids to work with their hands.’

The liberal arts exercise a hegemony that they, and their pursuit, provide the greatest and most beneficial contributions in the world- not necessarily.

I’m stuck on two questions: what about hard sciences and what gives with bias and disdain for those who work with their hands?

My own academic and professional work has been something of an effort to connect labor and academics- farming/food production and ways to build and bind community in schools. I’m a proponent of student contribution through work.

Class Judgment

Simply put, the hegemony of the liberal arts is a class thing.  Our culture accords one higher status if you work with your mind, don’t get dirty, and produce intellectual property.  Dirt and physical labor signify that ‘you must not be smart enough to find a clean, labor-free way to earn a living.’

Try explaining how and why you want to be carpenter, welder, or plumber- – or in my case a professional cook- after having earned a bachelor’s and/or a graduate degree.

I remember being confused and falling right into standard class judgment upon meeting (as young high school student) carpenters with degrees from Rice University. I was unable to reconcile a degree from Rice with a blue collar job.

As Crawford observes:

…The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also stupid…

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur — the hazards faced by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s poem “To Be of Use,” which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/and a person for work that is real.” Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy. (Crawford)

How then to explain the cook on the line, the electric lineman, the cop, the carpenter, or the plumber who all have undergraduate and, maybe graduate degrees?

Let’s begin with- ‘they enjoy labor; they enjoy the challenges of labor; they understand that there’s more thinking going on in the job than meets the eye; or, they’re just happier physically working rather than sitting at a desk.’

Here’s the Problem

…The imperative of the last 20 years to round up every warm body and send it to college, then to the cubicle, was tied to a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. This has not come to pass. To begin with, such work often feels more enervating than gliding. More fundamentally, now as ever, somebody has to actually do things: fix our cars, unclog our toilets, build our houses….(NYT)

….A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic credentials is viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates controlled by prestigious institutions…” (Crawford)

Status driven, gatekeeping institutions do not necessarily lead to or automatically result in a meaningful, productive, happy life. There’s work to be done.

Boarding Schools Provide A Place to Practice and Understand the Value of Work

Perhaps we need to reconsider engaging boarding school students through physical work- cleaning, maintaining, shoveling, cooking- physically working to help make the school run rather than watching and waiting for the ‘hired help’ (with presumed lower social status) to do things for students?

One of the beauties of boarding school is that it provides the opportunities for students to contribute to their communities and to shine in a variety of ways- in the classroom, in the arts, on the field, through community contribution, and yes even through labor. How about more work programs? Daily jobs programs? Practicing and respecting labor sharpens the mind and provides lessons in ownership that the liberal arts avoid.

Boarding schools must guard against the inherent liberal arts bias against labor. They must show, demonstrate, and respect the value of labor and those who enjoy it and make it their contribution.

My brush has been broad- perhaps too. Adhering to their philosophical and practical root, progressive boarding schools have always and continue making work and communal responsibility the foundation of their lessons. Several progressive boarding schools teach work and labor very well. Midland School and Buxton School come to mind. Their programs teach and instill labor, service and connection.

Take the liberal arts; make them yours; use a liberal arts education to pursue your work and goals- to find the work that fulfills you- even if it is offbeat and you use your hands. Connect your liberal arts education with your hands. Work hard. Stay active in your community and make the best decisions possible.

Remember, the guy who fixes your car might be smarter than you.