Challenges of being an 'artist'

Last week, having just completed a three-decade career in the Army, I received in the post a USB drive containing the record of my selection board - or job interview - when I applied to be an Officer. It was the first time I had the chance to see what they really thought of me through recruitment. It allowed for a terrific set of bookends for my Army career: at one end the record of an eager teenager looking for a challenge; read at the other end by a somewhat wiser, and certainly more worldly, 'retired' Brigadier.

It was nice to see the two (at the time I thought very old) Colonels believed teenage me had pretty good prospects in the Army. Recorded in neat cursive were affirming comments like I 'would be able to handle the program'. There was just one significant concern. I intended to study for a Bachelor of Arts.

Given the then options of Arts, Science and Engineering at UNSW@ADFA, the Colonels were concerned that as someone with potential I was dangerously seeking an 'easy' path because of my interest in history, politics and languages. In their minds, the logical extension of fewer academic contact hours than the other courses was an Army career spent dangerously cutting corners and wasting promise. To them, it seemed education was a means to a particular end: the discipline learnt from striving to achieve mastery of something you don't have a natural inclination towards trumped the importance of the material being studied.

Undoubtedly to the Colonels' chagrin, I did study arts and went on to graduate with first-class honours in history. Probably only pouring fuel onto the fire, I later completed three post-graduate degrees; two in humanities and one in business.

Looking back, I know now with absolute certainty that my education assisted me daily in an Army career that took me to all corners of the world and into (and thankfully out of) some pretty tricky spots. In time, my humanities-based education assisted me to become a deep generalist as a senior leader, affording me valuable insights into the broad sweep of national and international affairs, and assisting me untangle complex issues by always seeing them as components of an interconnected system.

Trying today to make sense of this recently discovered warning to my younger self of the 'easy path' in a liberal arts degree, I found it reassuring to read Caitlin Cassidy's article last week in the Guardian on the 'massive swell' in demand for humanities degrees. Despite the increased student cost imposed by the former Morrison government, and seismic changes occurring in the workplace, it turns out that today's young people are drawn to learning about what they find interesting. Just as it was for me when I was their age, what so many of them find interesting is liberal arts.

My daughter is in the final year of her own Arts degree; fitting this mould she enrolled because she was interested in the material. When she and her classmates graduate at the end of this year, I am sure they will go on to benefit from their humanities degrees at least as much as I have from mine. And, just as it was for me, after they graduate I know they will be drawn to those places where their education allows them to strive to leave their mark on the world.

I wonder what my selection board Colonels might be making of all this?

For Gerry Walsh.