Incorporating the Humanities More Fully Into Community Colleges

What is the value of the humanities to students in community colleges who are focused on getting jobs?
If you have an argument against the value of the humanities – any argument at all – rest assured Elñora Tena Webb can refute it. Think humanities funding is a waste of money, tech companies don’t want to hire humanities grads, or economically disadvantaged students care only about getting jobs? Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Webb, the president of Laney College in Oakland, grew up as a foster child in Los Angeles and decided to go to college primarily so she would have a place to live. But as Webb moved beyond focusing on survival to engaging deeply in learning how to learn, she became increasingly convinced of the power of the humanities to shape individuals and society at large. “The humanities enable us to open hearts and minds, to triangulate disparate information,” said Webb. “As a society, we demonstrate who we are as a human species based upon how we spend our time and where we devote other resources. The degree to which we will experience greater levels of health and wellbeing as a society is highly correlated, and arguably causal, with the degree to which we invest in the humanities.”

At Laney College, Webb works with faculty who, for the most part, are highly engaged in cross-disciplinary learning – for example, by teaching culinary arts and wood working technology classes that include English as a Second Language (ESL). According to Webb, economically disadvantaged students who attend Laney College are seeking contextualization. Webb has worked with many students who need jobs immediately and just want to “get in and out” of college, but don’t know how to do so. “When they’re exposed to the humanities,” Webb says, “these students are quite remarkable.” They engage with professors, think critically, and question the relevance of what they’re learning – all vital components of a humanities education. Webb says tech companies and other employers want students like this, students who initiate exploration of solutions to problems and who work collaboratively because they understand the value of it, not just because it’s what they’re told to do.

Everything is about the humanities, Webb says, and arguments about whether we should have humanities education should be nonstarters. “Humanities are the nature of who we are,” said Webb, “not an add-on. Even if we choose to eliminate the so-called investment of dollars, we are artists. We are dancers. We are creators. We are thinkers. The degree to which we choose to work in a way to shut that down, we eliminate anything that allows us to get closer to what we say we are: a democracy.”