“It may be hard to believe, but before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation” (1). Our society is constantly changing, and so is the human job market. Just recently, many simple human jobs have been taken away and replaced with faster, more reliable technology. Yet, many colleges are still encouraging students to further their education in fields that may not be around post-graduation, and degrading other majors that they see as “less demanding” or “less useful” (3). As a student in college, I have heard my peers specifically degrade majors in entertainment and the performing arts for various uninformed reasons, when it is in fact these jobs that will dominate the future job markets. If you are someone who is already rolling their eyes and believes the way for your child to get a steady job is for them to major in science, technology, engineering, math, or business, then my following arguments are written to make you think otherwise. Interestingly enough, the lack of sports and entertainment majors that universities offer bring up the same argument of being under-represented. But who cares that our institutions aren’t properly preparing their students for their future, right? Ultimately, what is at stake here is the quality of our higher education system. Our careers must adapt as our society does, and to do so we need to encourage majoring in careers that will last. Majors in entertainment and the performing arts are equally, if not exceedingly, rigorous when compared to highly praised college majors and are more likely to teach skills needed in the ever-changing job markets of today.

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Recently, arts programing budgets have been cut from many schools because the arts are not seen as extremely rigorous and therefore not useful to study (3). On the other hand, a great number of people are arguing for the introduction of sports-specific majors in colleges (2). There is no reason that these two disciplines should not be valued equally. Both activities have large followings who anticipate spending their weekends watching or engaging in the entertainment. Whether it is a football game or a classical ballet, audiences look up to the players and performers that make their entertainment happen. Roger Pielke Jr, a sports professor at the University of Colorado, stated that “[both arts and sports] performance requires some high-level combination of physical ability and mental acuity, developed through years of training and study.” Pielke’s point is that while society seems to prefer sports, it has been shown that the arts are equally as demanding, and should therefore be equally encouraged as a field of study (2). 

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In a recent article, The Daily Beast listed what they thought to be the 13 Most Useless Majors. Six of the majors they listed were majors in the arts and another four focused on creative thinking (3). It is commonly misunderstood that the students choosing to pursue these disciplines in college are the ones who are passionate about the craft and are not just doing it for fun. Students aiming to graduate with these degrees must put in the same long hours of training and studying as students in other fields. However, careers in the arts and entertainment industry require a level of creative thinking that is not required in other fields of study. 

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Many reliable jobs these days are looking to employ people with a college degree. The problem is that many of the jobs available are not ones that would have needed a degree years ago. Universities are preparing their students for the same jobs as they did 20 years ago, when the job market has changed so much just in the past few years (1). Robots and automated machinery are doing jobs more efficiently than humans ever could. 

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On the other hand, this automation is inventing new jobs in the creative fields that we hadn’t realized we needed. Unlike technology, humans are able to think creatively and find solutions to the world’s problems. In short, robots are taking basic and automatic work, leaving the humans to think and work creatively. “Humans were meant to be ballerinas, full-time musicians, mathematicians, athletes, fashion designers, yoga masters, fan-fiction authors, and folks with one-of-a kind titles on their business cards” (1). It is now time for the population to advance our education in a way that will prepare us for the jobs we were made to do. It is so easy for simple machinery to be programmed to do jobs like receptionists, waiters, accountants, pharmacists, and so many more. Humans should focus on entertaining jobs that aren’t easy to replicate.

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My point is not that the typical fields of study should be abandoned completely, but that we need to support the creative fields as equals. In as little as twenty years, the majority of the jobs that humans are still expected to complete will require critical, creative, and/or inventive thinking that our machines are not yet capable of doing. Humans will be working in fields that praise analytical and creative thinking, such as entertainers, writers, or designers, while other careers will be completely removed from the human job market. “Impossible,” some will say. “I am not allowing my kid to pursue that kind of career.” To that I say that I hope when all the music, journalism, and dance majors have steady jobs and your child keeps asking for money, that you regret pushing them to major in accounting because you thought it was “more academic.”