Biblioracle: Employers, don’t sleep on those English majors. We can do stuff.

Do you remember that old Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings song, “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys?”

The opening stanza goes like this:

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys

Don’t let ‘em pick guitars and drive them old trucks

Make ‘em be doctors and lawyers and such …

If I believe what I’m reading, the song needs to be changed to “Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be English Majors.” You wouldn’t even have to change the lyrics all that much.

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be English majors

Don’t let ‘em read books or write that old stuff

Make ‘em be doctors and lawyers or programmers and such

OK, maybe I don’t have a future as a writer of country songs, but as a one-time (two times if you count graduate school), English major, fiction was more my thing than poetry.

It is a recent New Yorker article by Nathan Heller, “The End of the English Major,” that has me singing my sad little tune. In the article, Heller investigates the state of things at Harvard and Arizona State University and finds that while students may still crave a humanities-like experience, the thought of majoring in English has grown less and less palatable.

For some, the English major is viewed as unserious, but as a graduate of the University of Illinois class of 1988, I can testify that it was ever thus.

I seem to recall my mechanical engineering friends saying something along the lines of: Must be nice to sit around and read books all day and get a degree.

My response: Yes!

Very nice indeed, and with the hindsight of time, a pretty good choice in terms of professional accomplishment and financial stability. I tell anyone who would listen that it’s my training in English and writing that has allowed me to adapt to different jobs and different eras, and not just survive, but thrive.

This included a career in market research, despite not having taken a math course since high school.

I’m old enough that I learned to type on a Royal manual typewriter, and didn’t have the internet at my job until after graduate school, but I’m now flying around the country as a speaker and consultant, trying to help schools and higher ed institutions adapt to a ChatGPT world.

Me! An English major!

In truth, the percentage of Humanities majors (like English) as part of the whole had its most precipitous decline in the 1970s and has been on more of a slow descent since, from around 10% in the 1990s to about half that now. Most of this is attributable to the rising cost of college, and students feeling considerably more pressure to major in something “practical.”

English may not seem practical, but when you look at surveys about the skills employers want, written communication skills are always near the top, and while an English major isn’t the only way to develop that competency, it remains a good way.

The biggest challenge for English majors — and one I faced even in my day — is that very few jobs say they’re looking to hire English majors, even though a good English major would be perfectly capable of doing the job.

I had to learn how to help employers see how my skills translated to what they needed. Once inside the organization, I had few worries.

If I could write a 15-page explication of a Gerard Manley Hopkins sonnet, a focus group report was child’s play.

Don’t sleep on those English majors, employers. We can do stuff.

John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”

Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.

1. “My Volcano” by John Elizabeth Stintzi

2. “The Violin Conspiracy” by Brendan Slocumb

3. “The Rabbit Hutch” by Tess Gunty

4. “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” by Shehan Karunatilaka

5. “2 A.M. in Little America” by Ken Kalfus

— Tim P., Sugar Grove, Illinois

All of these books are part of the annual Tournament of Books, a March Madness-style tournament to see which book of the previous year is the “best,” if such a thing were really possible. It is underway and you should check out the fun. For Tim, I think Rebecca Makkai’s engrossing new mystery, “I Have Some Questions for You” will hit the spot.

1. “Fleishman is in Trouble” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

2. “The House in the Pines” by Ana Reyes

3. “Writers & Lovers” by Lily King

4. “The End of the Affair” by Graham Greene

5. “Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance” by Alison Espach

— Addie T., Mandeville, Louisiana

Last month I wrote about how a one-star review convinced me that the novel “Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin was a good fit for me. I have now read the book and it’s terrifically funny and subversive, and I think it could be a good fit for Addie as well.

1. “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus

2. “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin

3. “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel

4. “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah

5. “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman

— Belinda P., Scottsdale, Arizona

These are all enormously popular books, which makes me want to reach for a book that maybe has not garnered as much recognition but deserves it: “So Much Pretty” by Cara Hoffman.

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Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com