....I'm a child of the "Humanities". In college I took as many courses in the Humanities as were offered: English literature, Shakespeare, Philosophy, Creative Writing and so on. But there are those who trash the Humanities as wasted tuition dollars, a one-way ticket to unemployment (I taught for 30 years). Mark Edmonson who teaches English at the University of Virginia said in the Washington Post that we "humanists" prepare students to succeed in the working world just as well as all those practical majors--maybe better. He goes on to say that we offer tools of thought. We teach our students to understand and analyze complex ideas. We help them to develop powers of expression, written and verbal. At our best we teach them how to reason--and reasoning undergirds every successful project.
.....In a recent article in "Business Insider" Bracken Darrell, the chief executive of Logitech tells about how he loves hiring English majors: "The best CEO's are extremely good writers and have this ability to articulate and verbalize what they are thinking." It seems that there's no problem then. Do you want success? Come on in. But the Humanities are not about success. Success is multi-faceted, and making a lot of money is not the only way to success. The Humanities is about questioning success--and every important value. Sure we humanities students are different not because of our powers of expression or our capacity to frame an argument or our ability to do independent work, but true humanities students are exceptional because they have been, and are, engaged in the activity that Plato commends--seeking to understand ourselves and how we ought to live our lives. And that, my friends, has been, and is, the primary goal of my life.
I agree wholeheartedly with what the Baron says. Everyone should be schooled in disciplined ways of both thinking and writing. Otherwise people will be (and a considerable number of them already are) totally unable to evaluate what comes their way in the way of political and advertising and life-advice related clap-trap.
ReplyDeleteJoel: one of the things that impressed me about the material found by the Wikileaks biz was the high quality of the language used. However, you told me that the wretch Julian Assange and poor screwed-up little Bradley Manning found only the "Top Secret" stuff, not the "Top Top Secret" stuff. Let's hope that the TTS stuff is so well expressed. Either that, or else the CIA is putting about disinformation about what WASN'T found, in order to save face. I believe I've mentioned this before, and still bear it in mind as a possible scenario, since it has been so widely and loudly disseminated by the CIA, and inter alia, yourself. CIA beware! Cousin Ruth is on to you!!!
Much love, dear Baron, Cuzzin Ruth
Having benefited in high school from your tutelage, trailing two degrees in literature and still writing, I agree on the value of the humanities. I also see two problems of great magnitude:
ReplyDelete1. Many of the present humanities professors are not inquiring minds but timid and sheep-like thinkers who prefer to tell students what to think not how to think.
2. Both the professors and the students have never had much or any experience that allows them to field test what they learn and "know" against life outside the safe middle class or academia. Let's never forget what Orwell and a few others knew so well--many of the great disasters of the 19th and 20th centuries were created or led by and supported by people with grand ideas.
Wally, Hi! You're slightly behind in your reading of the Baron's Blog. I agree with you about "many" of the humanities professors--but they are not the only ones with the responsibility required--to teach students "how to think".--but I believe humanities professors are in the best position to do that. "Doc"
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