Scholes on the Value of the Humanities

I'm currently making my way through The Rise and Fall of English by Robert Scholes. It's quite a fascinating look at how some of the traditionally successful aspects of English as an academic discipline are now being challenged. I think Scholes's analysis goes beyond just English though. In highlighting literature's receding place in our culture, his thoughts have implications beyond academics. He seems to be highlighting not just a crisis of literature, but a crisis of values in our society. He writes,

"What this society wants of those who graduate from its schools and colleges with degrees in the humanities-- as opposed to what those who claim to speak for it say it wants-- are, at worst, docility and grammatical competence, at best, reliability and a high level of textual skills. What this society does not want from our educational institutions is a group of people imbued with critical skills and values that are frankly antagonistic to those that prevail our marketplaces, courts, and legislative bodies." (emphasis in original)

Beyond the obvious implications for English (or philosophy or any of the humanities for that matter), Scholes highlights a real problem for humanities graduates, and for our society. There is no tablet of values for the English or humanities classroom. These classes do, however, preach, explicitly or not, the search for meaning, the search for truth, the thoughtfulness to interrogate texts and values. They teach a humanistic worldview, one that aims students at something resembling Plato's concept of "the good" or Nietzsche's "artist." What place does our society hold for such values?

A Wikipedia article on "quarter life crises" might help to shed more light on the problem. The article describes a quarter life crisis as such:

"After entering adult life and coming to terms with its responsibilities, some individuals find themselves experiencing career stagnation or extreme insecurity. The individual often realizes the real world is tougher, more competitive and less forgiving than they imagined. Furthermore, the qualifications they have spent so much time and money earning are not likely to prepare them for this disillusionment."

If this is the case, could a humanistic education actually be harming our students? While many of the values taught through the humanities are ones that I agree with and believe in, it seems that there needs to be some outlet for them outside of a university setting. I wonder, in our day and age, what outlet is there for critical and transcendent thinking outside of the classroom?