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It happens. You've enrolled in a completely useless class. You know the one. If you're in college you've probably announced to your friends, "I can't believe they're making me take this class." Or you tell your advisor, "I just need 3 more credits to graduate-- I'll take anything." Sometimes it's the only class in the time slot you have available. Sometimes it's the only open class. ("No wonder," you think.) And there you sit. Taking philosophy, art history, anthropology, comparative religion or whatever.
And if you're the parent of a college student you might be thinking, "I can't believe I'm wasting tuition dollars on this ridiculous class."
Even some politicians would agree with you. They like to talk about useless classes and unnecessary majors, too; bemoaning the lack of practical education and the waste of our tax dollars.
But wait a minute. Let me tell you about a question I ask on alumni surveys. Because they have the benefit of hindsight, I like to ask them about their "favorite useless class." Their responses never cease to amaze me, and confirm the truly unpredictable nature of careers and life.
Here are just a few of the hundreds of responses I have received:
Ceramics. "I discovered an unknown talent and a lifelong stress-reducing hobby." (Attorney)
Biology. "I took it to satisfy a distribution requirement and I ended up majoring in it." (Pediatrician)
Comparative Religion. "I was forever changed in my approach to life." (Orthopedic surgeon)
East Asian History. "It opened up a whole new world of interests to me." (Investment banker)
Astronomy. "I took this class and got hooked. To this day I look at the universe in amazement." (Real estate broker)
English course on Chaucer. "I learned how to research and write until I got it right." (Attorney)
Latin American Studies. "Because it gave me an awareness of international politics and scope beyond America." (Senior budget analyst for Fortune 100 high tech corporation)
Civil War History. "Probably the most difficult class I ever took, but so rewarding because of the professor and what I learned." (Managing partner, international consulting firm)
History of Women in China. "I learned to debate, construct arguments and persuade." (Project manager, high tech firm)
I often ask my current students the same question-- have you taken a class you thought would be useless, only to find it was valuable? Generally about 60-70% of my students raise their hands. And I learn about new majors pursued, career paths forged, connections to professors and ideas they would never have known otherwise, and life-changing decisions made.
In conversations about this topic, I'm inevitably asked about my favorite useless class. Being a liberal arts major, sometimes I'll jokingly say, "all of them."
But the truth is, it was a course on art and visual perception taught by Prof. Carol Small at Gettysburg College. I took it because it fit my schedule and some friends were taking it. I knew nothing about art history and quite frankly had little interest in it. But the first day of class, Prof. Small showed a slide of Robert Rauschenberg's "Monogram."
In case you haven't seen it, it's a stuffed goat with a tire around its body. And I think there's a tennis ball somewhere, too. (I'm not kidding. Here's a link if you'd like to see a picture of it.) I was enchanted. That was art? Really? How on earth is that art-- isn't art the "Mona Lisa"? And through this mesmerizing course she taught us about gestalt theory and line and form and movement and "positive use of negative space." After that I took every art history class I could squeeze into my schedule. Bottom line, I can go into any art gallery or museum and understand what I'm seeing at a deeper level than I would otherwise.
And, perhaps more important to the politicians and others out there, I still use what I learned in that class. I developed a career coaching system based on visual thinking techniques, have guided thousands of students through it, and even wrote a book about it. I am currently running webinars for all the career counselors in the California Community College System on how to use visual thinking techniques to guide their students' careers. I have trained hundreds of career practitioners about the value of developing an "appreciative eye" by-- yes-- showing them the image of the goat with the tire. (They like it too.)
Does this mean that all "useless" classes turn out to be life-changing gifts in disguise? Of course not. A few alumni tell me about a class that started out useless and stayed that way. But here's the rub: how do we know what will be useless and what will be life-changing? How do we predict which course will inspire a lifelong passion or hobby, teach us a new perspective, uncover a hidden talent or skill, or lead to a new career? We don't. We can't. What we can do is stay open to new ideas and information and see what unfolds-- see if we can develop the appreciative eye. What we can do is show up with an open mind and learn.
©2012 Katharine Brooks. All rights reserved. Find me on Facebook and Twitter.
