Why are the humanities important and do they have a place within the
educational system? Reading that question greatly saddened me. To think
that the question has to even be asked is absurd. Granted, humanities
may have to evolve the further away society grows from the fundamental
knowledge of yesteryear, but there should always be a place for
humanities within the educational system and within society as a whole.
Within the scope of the formative is precisely when humanities should be introduced and encouraged. Most times, apathy has already set in when the child reaches high school. Society has already blackened the image of a healthy individual with the introduction of greed. Money makes the world go round, and there is no place for money in the humanities. It is better to be a skilled athlete than a skilled artist or humanitarian. Too often children are exposed to the sinister world of green ink, and the so-called happiness those rectangles can do. Every child wants to be Puff Daddy or Paris Hilton, have their money and their good times. But does that make them solid individuals? They have pockets that are fat with rolls and they don't have to do anything but show up to the party make them irresistible to children. The thought that they don't seem to put forth effort lends children to believe that they don't have to either. The simple fact is humanities, as with any subject in education, takes effort. If a child can bounce a ball and make a million, they will choose that over the several years of study and research to gain a solid foundation within them.
To me, research has never been an issue. I have always enjoyed the process of discovering new ideas and concepts, discovering the why's and how's of the areas I have found interesting. However, I am a child of lifelong student. I haven't been exposed to anything any different. I was pushed out the door, and told to explore, to imagine. It is this notion that perpetuates the humanities and other subjects of education. Had it not been for those who never stopped questioning, the knowledge we have today would be limited, so why would I want to limit myself?
I believe a great deal of the issues within the educational system is limitation; from funding to resources, every person associated with the educational system is limited. Teachers are limited in funds. School boards are limited by politics. Students are limited by apathy. We are not within the scope of the ancient Greeks, able to school ourselves as a career and be rewarded. Intelligence is seen as a curse in this age. Conjecture has been replaced by Olympics. We are more concerned with the physical instead of the spiritual. Magazines and television promote this. We are growing further away from research and pondering by a capitalistic nation who longs more for fashionable emptiness than intellectual solidity.
The humanities were created-if you can call it as such--as a means to balance man. The three R's were the subjects that would make a man whole. Intellectual pursuits, instead of physical pursuits, were how society evolved, until the Greeks developed the Olympic Games, then physicality was brought into the balance. It is this introduction which would prove to be detrimental to the foundation of man.
However, I do believe there shall be a resurgence of the humanities, a backlash of the electronic and physical addiction most people have today. Just like anything else, knowledge is cyclic; theories abound, an influx of agreements and counter agreements, opinions ripple through academia at a rapid speed. As quickly as the theory is hypothesized the theory has been denounced and replaced by the next big thing, and like a bad polyester leisure suit with baby blue lapels, the theory is back in fashion. It is forgotten that theory creates wonder. Those who write it off simply don't want to expend the energy and brain cells they reserve for the seventh level of Grand Theft Auto to wrap their minds around an abstract concept.
But wait, what is more abstract then a computer generated video game?
Abstraction is what led the Egyptians to create their own language, or the Greeks to father the first politics. Abstraction is what made Galileo think beyond the flatness of linear thought. Abstraction is what made Newton sit under the apple tree. Abstraction is what makes a person great. Never ceasing to question, that is man's ultimate goal. It's the why that enlightens.
Within the scope of the formative is precisely when humanities should be introduced and encouraged. Most times, apathy has already set in when the child reaches high school. Society has already blackened the image of a healthy individual with the introduction of greed. Money makes the world go round, and there is no place for money in the humanities. It is better to be a skilled athlete than a skilled artist or humanitarian. Too often children are exposed to the sinister world of green ink, and the so-called happiness those rectangles can do. Every child wants to be Puff Daddy or Paris Hilton, have their money and their good times. But does that make them solid individuals? They have pockets that are fat with rolls and they don't have to do anything but show up to the party make them irresistible to children. The thought that they don't seem to put forth effort lends children to believe that they don't have to either. The simple fact is humanities, as with any subject in education, takes effort. If a child can bounce a ball and make a million, they will choose that over the several years of study and research to gain a solid foundation within them.
To me, research has never been an issue. I have always enjoyed the process of discovering new ideas and concepts, discovering the why's and how's of the areas I have found interesting. However, I am a child of lifelong student. I haven't been exposed to anything any different. I was pushed out the door, and told to explore, to imagine. It is this notion that perpetuates the humanities and other subjects of education. Had it not been for those who never stopped questioning, the knowledge we have today would be limited, so why would I want to limit myself?
I believe a great deal of the issues within the educational system is limitation; from funding to resources, every person associated with the educational system is limited. Teachers are limited in funds. School boards are limited by politics. Students are limited by apathy. We are not within the scope of the ancient Greeks, able to school ourselves as a career and be rewarded. Intelligence is seen as a curse in this age. Conjecture has been replaced by Olympics. We are more concerned with the physical instead of the spiritual. Magazines and television promote this. We are growing further away from research and pondering by a capitalistic nation who longs more for fashionable emptiness than intellectual solidity.
The humanities were created-if you can call it as such--as a means to balance man. The three R's were the subjects that would make a man whole. Intellectual pursuits, instead of physical pursuits, were how society evolved, until the Greeks developed the Olympic Games, then physicality was brought into the balance. It is this introduction which would prove to be detrimental to the foundation of man.
However, I do believe there shall be a resurgence of the humanities, a backlash of the electronic and physical addiction most people have today. Just like anything else, knowledge is cyclic; theories abound, an influx of agreements and counter agreements, opinions ripple through academia at a rapid speed. As quickly as the theory is hypothesized the theory has been denounced and replaced by the next big thing, and like a bad polyester leisure suit with baby blue lapels, the theory is back in fashion. It is forgotten that theory creates wonder. Those who write it off simply don't want to expend the energy and brain cells they reserve for the seventh level of Grand Theft Auto to wrap their minds around an abstract concept.
But wait, what is more abstract then a computer generated video game?
Abstraction is what led the Egyptians to create their own language, or the Greeks to father the first politics. Abstraction is what made Galileo think beyond the flatness of linear thought. Abstraction is what made Newton sit under the apple tree. Abstraction is what makes a person great. Never ceasing to question, that is man's ultimate goal. It's the why that enlightens.
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