Human behavior, relationships, ethics, and life experiences cannot be learned adequately in a science lab where humans are subjected to several scientific experiments to prove a certain theory, claim or concept regarding human practice, deeds, and reasoning since every person respond and act differently to stimuli in their locality. As such, life experiences and human behavior can only be learned exhaustively in real world environment through real-time events or borrowing from the historical perspective. Thus, humanities offer an opportunity for us to be critical in assessing events, human acts and at the same time think creatively and provide new insights to a variety of phenomenon in problem-solving. Arguably, we are living in a world where there is chaos between the old and modern traditions, hence, humanities provide its learners with skills and knowledge to liberate themselves from life dilemmas by providing understanding on human culture and values that are cherished by individuals, in particular, region and provide ways to adapt to current world while still keeping old traditions and how to incorporate change without compromising humanity. Notably, the current society has been obsessed with the notion of “employability degrees” for instance engineering without considering the knowledge gained by studying Humanities. The connection between job market and the studies which students decide to pursue is a major concern in the public arena which has put students in a dilemma about their future and what they ought to study in order to be marketable for jobs when they clear college/university education. However, this stigma can be overcome by higher learning institution teaching students how they can apply the knowledge gain in class to real-world scenarios and future events. Thus, there is the need to change how humanities courses are delivered and tuned them to the current business world, politics, economics and human resources. The humanities ought to be a backbone of all disciplines, not elective courses when it comes to providing knowledge and understanding of human behavior and what needs to be done to manage citizens, workforce couple with consumers across the globe and ensure success different entities in achieving their goals in future and providing services that are culture sensitive.
According to Terry Eagleton, it is nearly impossible to eliminate humanities from the University since they are a major component of these institutions which they cannot survive without (Eagleton). If humanities are removed from college, this will turn these institutions into training and research facilities which will only concentrate on passing knowledge from one generation to another or from tutor to students without evoking critical thinking and being creative with the knowledge gained in class (Eagleton). As such, these institutions would be similar to military training grounds where recruits ought to follow orders without questioning the importance, origin, future applicability and effects to mankind of skills and information being passed to them by their tutor. Therefore, from Terry perspective, I agree that humanities and other disciplines go hand in hand with each other. There is a common belief that real men ought to take engineering and alike course while those who considered weak ‘sissies’ should take humanities, but this is far from the truth since subjects such as ethics, history, and philosophy cut across all discipline. These small portions of humanities courses taught as elective subjects help students studying law and engineering have a good understanding of the origin of some of the concepts and effects to humans. Thus, the usefulness of humanities cannot be ignored since they form an integral part of the education system which deal social aspect of every discipline. The humanities ensure that human values, culture, and traditions are maintained in the modern societies to protect the social order (Eagleton). Universities have a vital role to play in ensuring humanities studies are maintained to offer a venue to preserve human values, culture, and wisdom which are under threat from industrial capitalism whose main aim is to make profits despite the adverse effects it impacts on the environment and humanity. As such, universities ought to be the center of critique, where they question and assess the effect of modernization and globalization to societies. However, according to Terry this is far from the truth since Universities are yet to take their right place in the society as being the center of wisdom and critique since they are controlled by the politics through states funding, as such, Universities are fighting to retain the status quo than challenging social justice and human welfare to secure a bright future for all persons (Eagleton).
There have been calls around the political and economic sphere to cut state funding on humanities courses but increase the funding on the scientific, business, law and engineering courses which guarantee employment right after graduating from the University (Moorthy). There is a common belief that humanities are lesser courses and do not assure students employment after college. Thus, they are not important disciplines which can drive the economy. However, Terry assert that, human values and principles should be central to everything and Universities through humanities should fight for social justice, maintain our traditions and offer imaginations of better future by improving human welfare (Eagleton).
Martha Nussbaum asserts that higher learning prepares and equips students with necessary knowledge which will be instrumental in dealing with challenges related to globalization and citizenship, in addition, to have imagination thinking where a person can see things from another person’s perspective while improving their talents (Nussbaum). However, there is a segment of the society which see the modern learning as immoral, rebellious and which has the potential of destroying the nation which is closely related to Socrates’ teaching (Nussbaum). According to Martha Nussbaum, the modern education ought to liberate students from old traditions where they were supposed to follow instructions to the contemporary environment where they are encouraged to take matters into their hands and starts thinking, questioning, examine life dynamics, reflect and critic common human practices from business to political debate (Nussbaum). This will enhance personal growth, and as such; individual will discover themselves, govern their life, be in a position to identify challenges in their locality, offer solutions and respect the dignity of other persons (Wendy). I support Martha Nussbaum comments that there is the need for University to change old ways of teaching allow students to have the capacity to think for themselves. We are living in a diverse society which is a democratic couple with internationalization (Nussbaum). Thus, Universities ought to prepare students to be good citizens who can interact with people from other nations with different culture without difficulties. Therefore, humanities play an essential role in shaping students to have a global mindset which aims at solving problems of wider spectrum across different culture, ethnic and religion across the globe (Carolyn). Martha assert that humanities not only prepare students for future careers but to have concrete knowledge about life and citizenship (Nussbaum).This will help students to reason logically, question and test the information they come across to have an accuracy of the facts contained in the information before making judgments (Nussbaum). Therefore, humanities are essential to every student and need to be incorporated in their studies irrespective of their major.
Works Cited
Carolyn, Gregoire. "This Is Irrefutable Evidence Of The Value Of A Humanities Education." The Huffington Post. N.p., 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/the-unusual-college-major_n_4654757.html>.
Eagleton, Terry. "The death of universities." (2014): Web.
Moorthy, Neelesh. "Value of Humanities Education Doubted in Academic Circles." The Chronicle. N.p., 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2015/02/value-humanities-education-doubted-academic-circles>.
Nussbaum, Martha. "EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP IN AN ERA OF GLOBAL CONNECTION." (2002): Web.
Wendy, Earle. "Let's Stop Being Defensive About the Value of Arts Degrees | Higher Education Network | The Guardian." The Guardian. N.p., 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/may/29/study-arts-humanites-enrichment>.
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