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Unacceptable Bob's avatar

I’m a critic of churning out large numbers of university graduates who are not better citizens, or enlightened. Humanities should be for the masses, beginning in elementary school. Restricting it to “higher” education as an elective is a measure of our culture - or lack thereof.

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catharine j. anderson's avatar

I majored in the Humanities. At the time, I worked part time as a security guard. One night I was working a shift with an "older" man. I was reading some school related assignment. He asked what I was majoring in and I said, "The Humanities." He thought about it a moment or two then said, "You will never make a lot of money but you will have an interesting life." This proved to be true. If I could do it over I would not change a thing.

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Jeffrey Nall, Ph.D.'s avatar

Thank you for sharing your experience!

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Jeffrey Nall, Ph.D.'s avatar

Well I certainly agree that what we call the humanities ought to be meaningfully incorporated throughout our education system. Doing so would recognize the multiplicity of intelligence is, the multiplicity of areas of human experience and creativity worthy of honoring and nurturing in human beings. However, I must say from direct experience that humanities courses are indeed helping to cultivate empathy, cultural knowledge, critical thinking in university students, all of which contribute to being a good citizen.

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