All of my professors tend to go off on tangents in mid lecture about how there is no longer much value in a Classical education. Admittedly, it seems pretty true. I'll be studying Classics for the next four or five years in University, and once I'm finished, I have absolutely no idea what I'll be able to do with it. I don't know if there is a lucrative career out there waiting for someone with a degree in dead civilizations and languages, and I honestly don't even know where to start looking or if there's even a sizable group of people like me in the same boat (and if there isn't, it makes competition for that mystery job that much more thin).

Does anyone here a) study Classics, b) intend to study Classics, or c) make a living from studying Classics? Got any tips/advice/stories/anecdotes/narratives?

*For the uninitiated, Classics is the study of the languages, cultures, and civilizations of the Ancient World. Essentially, the Roman Empire/Republic, the Hellenistic era, Classical Greece, and all that fun stuff including Latin and Ancient Greek languages and dialects*

Historian?

Really , I want to be and editor or whatever for a newspaper , but recently I've been thinking how awesome it would be to have real life AI like in Sci-Fi(Cortanna from Halo to give you guys an idea.)

Im doing history, & the only thing that really seems to prepare me for is a career teaching other people history. I think most of the humanities are the same in that regard. Yippee :-D

[of course theres the whole 'transferable skills' stuff. But what interesting jobs do the skills of reading books & writing long essays transfer to? Accounting? :-D]

Cousin_IT:
Im doing history, & the only thing that really seems to prepare me for is a career teaching other people history. I think most of the humanities are the same in that regard. Yippee :-D

Sounds like a plan =D
I intend to make a living off teaching and writing history books. That or psychiatry.

I thought the only reason people study Classics is to get into Oxford or Cambridge...

harhol:
I thought the only reason people study Classics is to get into Oxford or Cambridge...

That was actually my plan about a year and a half ago. Then I remembered that I'm not extravagantly wealthy and I live half the world away.

Cousin_IT:
Im doing history, & the only thing that really seems to prepare me for is a career teaching other people history. I think most of the humanities are the same in that regard. Yippee :-D

[of course theres the whole 'transferable skills' stuff. But what interesting jobs do the skills of reading books & writing long essays transfer to? Accounting? :-D]

yep, doing History as well. I'm essentially spending a lot of money to stall a couple of years till I can come up with a career plan...

Classics is only particularly useful if you won't to become a criminal mastermind...preferably one who's a cannibal and has an perplexing relationship with an female FBI agent...

carnkhan4:

Classics is only particularly useful if you won't to become a criminal mastermind..

My girlfriend is studying classics, and was last year voted most likely to take over the world. I get it now...

(left out the cannibalism and lesbian affair bit, cos that's less good)

Maet:

harhol:
I thought the only reason people study Classics is to get into Oxford or Cambridge...

That was actually my plan about a year and a half ago. Then I remembered that I'm not extravagantly wealthy and I live half the world away.

Why should that stop you?

As a profession...Classics Professor? Or a career in the civil service...

Phantom2595:

Really , I want to be and editor or whatever for a newspaper , but recently I've been thinking how awesome it would be to have real life AI like in Sci-Fi(Cortanna from Halo to give you guys an idea.)

WTF does that have do to with anything?

My one buddy is taking history, I think something along the lines of The Western World. He says it is extremely interesting, and that our highschool teachers turned many people off of a wonderful subject. Well, that is mostly because that particular teacher was a complete science addict. Anyway, he said he was taking a few mediterranean courses as well, but has yet to experience them.

History and classic degrees are meant to be quite good to get as many employers see it as a sign that you can commit and concentrate hard well according to one of my teachers still it's an English degree for me because I'm a lazy ass

I'll be studying Classics at the University of Nottingham starting in 09. On a gap year at the moment. From what i hear, if you're really interested the financial sector loves people with Classics degrees, as does the legal profession. Personally i'm stopping in Academia after i finish, i plan on either going into Romano-British Archaeology and writing.

You could always consider something along the lines of museum curator, although perhaps a degree in history would be more appropriate.

historian or teacher

we do need ppl to learn some of the old tricks tho, there's a lot of old stuff that we are currently forgetting due to modern technology and yet is very useful in this day and age

well you cant have classics if there are never any new ideas to become classics over time.

A/B) I'm an English/Classics double-major, though I've been thinking of dropping English for comparative literature while there's still time. I don't know yet. I'm also interested in Old English and Old Norse, so anything above undergraduate study is still undecided.

C) A few of my professors have suggested working for museums, teaching (my original plan), studying law, archaeology (sounds like fun), being a lobbyist of sorts, journalism and reviews, and, odd as it may sound, advising culture creation in video games.

Though I plan on teaching at a college level, every boarding school and a few public schools need Latin and Ancient Greek teachers. I've been pondering on that for a while since some boarding schools can pay close to a university salary.

Also, according to my biology professor, Latin and Ancient Greek teachers are somewhat needed in Appalachian areas. He spent his youth there and he's fairly young, so I imagine his knowledge isn't terribly out-dated.

Richer areas would have a greater need for Classics teachers/professors, I'd think.

Maet:
I honestly don't even know where to start looking or if there's even a sizable group of people like me in the same boat (and if there isn't, it makes competition for that mystery job that much more thin).

Though I can't speak for all of America, Classics majors are a rare breed in southwest Virginia-- Hell, they're rare in Viginia. Two things are preached here: engineering and technology. Anything else is secondary--

--which actually encourages me.

There seem to be only a few career paths that studying the classics leads to:
1) Being a History Lecturer
2) Being a high school History teacher
3) Being an Historian on a BBC documentary series and making pots of money by making history sound sexy to the unwashed masses...

Eyclonus:
There seem to be only a few career paths that studying the classics leads to:
1) Being a History Lecturer
2) Being a high school History teacher
3) Being an Historian on a BBC documentary series and making pots of money by making history sound sexy to the unwashed masses...

Depending on what Classics program we follow, we can also study philosophy, language and literature. Several professors at public colleges make a living teaching classes on one of those three, let alone history.

Not that I'm suggesting you don't know that, Eyclonus. I only wanted to clarify this bit for other readers:

Maet:

*For the uninitiated, Classics is the study of the languages, cultures, and civilizations of the Ancient World. Essentially, the Roman Empire/Republic, the Hellenistic era, Classical Greece, and all that fun stuff including Latin and Ancient Greek languages and dialects*

.

Blank Verse:
Depending on what Classics program we follow, we can also study philosophy, language and literature. Several professors at public colleges make a living teaching classes on one of those three, let alone history.

I was merely referring to the fact that anything related to History, especially that far back, is really given the backseat when non-Academics compare it to other fields like Micro-Biology and pretty much anything from the Business faculties, in terms of percieved value and utility. Which is a shame because a lot of life's lessons are best learnt studying History.

I don't care what anyone says, Latin is useful

Eyclonus:

Blank Verse:
Depending on what Classics program we follow, we can also study philosophy, language and literature. Several professors at public colleges make a living teaching classes on one of those three, let alone history.

I was merely referring to the fact that anything related to History, especially that far back, is really given the backseat when non-Academics compare it to other fields like Micro-Biology and pretty much anything from the Business faculties, in terms of percieved value and utility. Which is a shame because a lot of life's lessons are best learnt studying History.

Huh? I didn't see that in your original text, but I agree. There's no replacement for history, literature and philosophy.

I like to use a little demonstration for this, ask anybody who is not a humanities/arts student and ask them what academic field is the least useful...

Possibile jobs that I can see are:
Historian
History Teacher
Archaeoligist (can't spell)
Philosophy (how classics apply to modern life)
Architecture (Greek-style buildings seem to be moderatly popular)
And good ol' fashioned Professor in Classics.

Personally, I think it's worth while to read up on the roots of most modern culture today. It gives you a feeling of how far we've come since the days of Socrates and such.

Phantom2595:
Historian?

Really , I want to be and editor or whatever for a newspaper , but recently I've been thinking how awesome it would be to have real life AI like in Sci-Fi(Cortanna from Halo to give you guys an idea.)

My brother is actually working for a research group that is working on making thinking AIs. Not personalities per se, but it's a step.

Oh, I don't disagree with you in saying the public perception isn't peachy, but...

Eyclonus:
There seem to be only a few career paths that studying the classics leads to:
1) Being a History Lecturer
2) Being a high school History teacher
3) Being an Historian on a BBC documentary series and making pots of money by making history sound sexy to the unwashed masses...

This is a list of professions. It doesn't really suggest that history is "given the back seat."

It only highlights an axiom: a history degree shows an attempt to enlighten oneself about past occurances. Because artistic enlightenment isn't a practical skill (welding, engineering, designing), it finds little use in a practical society. One of the few things you can do with that knowledge is teach others.

The fact the humanities/arts are treated only half as well as engineering/physiology/etc is an axiom now, too. It has probably been that way since the early 1900's, when a century of failed school reforms began and practical use became education's goal, not education for its own sake.

The original poster also mentions the general feelings towards humanities: "All of my professors tend to go off on tangents in mid lecture about how there is no longer much value in a Classical education."

This idea was previously mentioned and redundant to expound upon, let alone an axiom (though a good opening for the original poster's question).

Because I've seen your other posts, I thought you were astute and not being redundant. I merely wanted to elaborate that Classical study is really a concentration, not a true major. We study history, philosophy and literature. There are more options than becoming a history teacher. That's all I wanted to make clear.

I agree with what you said. I never doubted it. I simply did not perceive it from your original statement.

In case it turns out to be a language taught to man by aliens, who would get a little angry that we ignored them?

Archaeology, and random people on TV Shows with 'Historian' for a profession are the only things that spring to mind.

High School Teacher is probably what I'm aiming for at the moment and probably where I'll end up.

I've only just finished the first year of a three-year Bachelor of Arts, so I still retain the idyllic view that you should study what you enjoy and not what will ensure that you don't live in a cardboard box for the rest of your life.

But in all seriousness, Latin is easily the coolest subject I've ever studied. Hopefully starting Ancient Greek next year. Huzzah!

xitel:

Phantom2595:
Historian?

Really , I want to be and editor or whatever for a newspaper , but recently I've been thinking how awesome it would be to have real life AI like in Sci-Fi(Cortanna from Halo to give you guys an idea.)

My brother is actually working for a research group that is working on making thinking AIs. Not personalities per se, but it's a step.

Tell your brother that he's awesome, and ask him about his job.(pay,education needed etc)

Cousin_IT:

[of course theres the whole 'transferable skills' stuff. But what interesting jobs do the skills of reading books & writing long essays transfer to? Accounting? :-D]

Well, having spent 3 years outside of college I can honestly say the one thing that massive numbers of people seem incapable of is writing a clear, coherent essay that communicates a point to someone else. Almost any workplace at some point is going to need someone who can write.

The problem is that it's like that joke from 'SuperTroopers'. You can't just be good at writing, it has to go with something else. Otherwise the employers is just going to say, writing and....? Writing and...?

Minor in something like computer science and you'll be golden.

latenightapplepie:
But in all seriousness, Latin is easily the coolest subject I've ever studied. Hopefully starting Ancient Greek next year. Huzzah!

I'm taking Latin and Ancient Greek at the same time with four other courses. The two of them are interesting and all, but damn they soak up so much time and effort.

I was completely lost for the first couple weeks trying to wrap my head around English sentences being built by the position of words and Latin/Ancient Greek sentences being built by the construction of words.

When I was a history student everyone assumed I wanted to be a history teacher^*... because they saw no other value for history.

That, if you think about it, is a very sad commentary on our society.

History's (and the Classics in general are) more than just old poems and lists of dead kings; it's a look at how we lived in the past, what decisions were made and what the consequences of those decisions were, where we come from and maybe a hint at where we're going. If people paid more attention to history there might not be a failing counterinsurgency in Iraq and a financial system teetering on the brink of bankruptcy today, because people would've known about the Mahdi uprisings and the roots of Fannie Mae.

-- Steve

^*(I didn't want to be a teacher; I wanted to be a writer.)

I speak Latin.
Is that enough?

Phantom2595:

xitel:

Phantom2595:
Historian?

Really , I want to be and editor or whatever for a newspaper , but recently I've been thinking how awesome it would be to have real life AI like in Sci-Fi(Cortanna from Halo to give you guys an idea.)

My brother is actually working for a research group that is working on making thinking AIs. Not personalities per se, but it's a step.

Tell your brother that he's awesome, and ask him about his job.(pay,education needed etc)

Oh don't make me tell him he's awesome, I don't think he needs to be more egotistical. As for your questions, I don't know about his pay, but I can ask him. I know he's in college right now working on a Bachelor's in Computer Science. I'll ask him if he has a minor or something too.