Indeed, I inherited from my father a love for engagement with real-world complexities, and it is that, not escapism, that has fastened me to my present work. The same, I know, can be said of what my colleagues throughout the humanities feel about the books, poems, symphonies and other cultural artifacts that attract their interest. What my engineer father likes about his work is not very different from what we like about ours. These are skills that students are learning, too, in the liberal arts. But mastering that useful and perhaps necessary knowledge need not govern more than a modest portion of an academic program.
Students can major in mathematics and go on to get a Ph.D. in music.
And they can major in music and go to med school. Advisors in every department and in the College Office can help students put together such a program. We share with our students, as fellow intellect-uals, the wonderful responsibility of capturing the liveliness of today in our scholarship and brightening our understanding of the here and now with light borrowed from every place and time of human endeavor. And it can begin when a student chooses a major.