For many, trade schools seem to be the only place where objective knowledge remains intact. However, a handful of small, faithful colleges across the country is restoring confessional Christianity as the core of their liberal arts and humanities courses. Their institutions realize that timeless works by theologians such as Augustine continue to speak into today’s challenges more than most published in our lifetime. 

Something peculiar is brewing in higher education. Enrollment trends are shifting as four-year colleges are declining. In fact, high school grads are skipping tertiary education altogether.

What caused these changes?

Ultimately, the flaws in traditional higher education are plentiful, even at Christian colleges. Substance abuse. Sexual licentiousness. Ideological indoctrination. Antisemitism and other forms of racism. The list is too long to recount. No school is perfect, but a value proposition must be high enough for parents to invest time and energy into any given institution.

A growing number of conservative Christians are abandoning higher education altogether because the cost, content, and outcomes for graduates of four-year institutions are unappealing. This reaction, in addition a myriad of other factors, contributes to the likelihood that four-year colleges will continue to close at record rates – one per week, on average.

As an alternative to the four-year degree, many students are flocking to another type of institution: the trade school. Let’s look at the reason that trade schools are popular and then examine how abandoning the liberal arts will affect the Church long-term.

The 2020 Pandemic’s Affect on Higher Education

The 2020 pandemic accelerated the inevitable market adjustments in higher education. Colleges quarantined or sent their students home, and professors delivered their courses online. Parents then saw a glimpse into the educational systems: Assignments were paltry. Loneliness, depression, and addictions became pervasive. Suicide rates increased. Many conscientious parents realized that the course material students learn is garbage at worst, unhelpful at best, and rarely stimulating enough to merit large investments of time or money.

An unlikely type of institution benefited. COVID-19 was a gift to trade schools. According to a report from October 2024, “The percentage of both teens and adults interested in enrolling in trade school almost doubled during the pandemic.” That trend has not slowed in the past few years. In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, “Trade schools that used to accept virtually everyone now have hundreds of teens on wait lists. Demand is so high that several mainstream public high schools in the state are reviving or expanding shop classes, part of a nationwide trend.”

The trades, what the ancients called mechanical arts, became the most reasonable route of escape because they tend to avoid certain cultural pitfalls in higher education. Graduates can often earn a living upon graduation, without much debt, while avoiding cultural brainwashing. The apprenticeship model often facilitates better learning. Income is generally steady; someone is always in need of electrical work, plumbing, a kitchen remodel, or other construction.

This shift toward the trades represents a long-overdue market correction. The economy needs additional skilled laborers in the trades particularly as baby boomers approach retirement. But, as with many societal shifts, the direction toward trades may be excessive.

The Tension between Liberal and Mechanical Arts

Historically, the trades were known as mechanical arts. Philosophers have long understood the importance of these mechanical, once referred to as common, arts. The seventh century theologian and scholar, Isidore of Seville, praised the value of mechanical arts in his Etymologiae. Hugh of Saint Victor offered a favorable discussion of their nature and divisions in his twelfth-century treatise, Didascalion. Kevin Clark and Ravi Scott Jain confirm in their book, The Liberal Arts Tradition, “Christians have always had a high view of the common arts.”[1]

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[1] Kevin Clark and Ravi Scott Jain, The Liberal Arts Tradition, revised ed. Camp Hill, PA (Classical Academic Press, 2019); 115.