Laudato Si on the Inadequacy of our Devolution into STEM Education

215. In this regard, “the relationship between a good aesthetic education and the maintenance of a healthy environment cannot be overlooked”.[150]By learning to see and appreciate beauty, we learn to reject self-interested pragmatism. If someone has not learned to stop and admire something beautiful, we should not be surprised if he or she treats everything as an object to be used and abused without scruple. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realize that certain mindsets really do influence our behaviour. Our efforts at education will be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature. Otherwise, the paradigm of consumerism will continue to advance, with the help of the media and the highly effective workings of the market.

The great thing about a liberal arts education, in addition to the fact that it teaches you to despise all the money you’ll never make, is that it can open you to a sacramental appreciation of the Beautiful.