Humanities in modern day education?

[mewtwo]

So I cant really think of anyone else to ask, I will be searching around the internet to find other forums to ask on but this one has a diverse group of people and I would like your input. In modern day education are the humanities really needed? Have they become obsolete? If I want to become a data-center admin running servers for Google what good does learning Shakespeare do in preparing me for that job? How does studying a Vincent van Gogh painting help me?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

[soaring crane]

How about a game? Try playing the devil's advocate and answering your own question from the viewpoint that you don't agree with.

[Protector]

Students don't take English seriously anyway, and the excuse English teachers make is that English teaches most generic life skills, whatever they are.

Educators would save a lot of time and money if they aimed to directly train workers for their chosen profession.

But then people need time to decide what they want to be

maaaaaaaaaaaaan, so annoying

 

Say, it would probably be better to train a student for a random job then have the student do the job and then get a higher education later on when they are tired of it and if they are tired of it.

[ValleyStream]

Its hard to say.

 

Perhaps certain admin see it allowing the student to become "well rounded".

 

Perhaps it is a tactic to charge more credit hours to students in order to increase school funding.

 

I see every situation as an opportunity to learn something and i walk into my humanities with an open mind.

 

one thing is for sure...you have to take them...so why not try and learn something. i know i have; and i am glad i have taken certain classes even though they are not applicable to my major.

[mewtwo]

Its hard to say.

 

Perhaps certain admin see it allowing the student to become "well rounded".

 

Perhaps it is a tactic to charge more credit hours to students in order to increase school funding.

 

I see every situation as an opportunity to learn something and i walk into my humanities with an open mind.

 

one thing is for sure...you have to take them...so why not try and learn something. i know i have; and i am glad i have taken certain classes even though they are not applicable to my major.

 

 

What are you studying? I was asking more Philosophically which is funny cause philosophy is a humanity depending on who you ask.

[thelerner]

[mewtwo]

lol gender studies, speaking of which I did participate in a study survey thing on why I like My little pony and why I call myself a brony.

[dust]

Is this an American thing? A class called "Humanities"? Are you forced to study them in college even when on an entirely different major?

 

If that's the case, I agree. To prepare for a specific job, one need only be taught about that job. Anything else can be done in one's spare time.

 

However, if it's just that you don't like art or literature and think you should never have bothered learning about them...

 

Firstly, we'd do well to discern what they are:

 

The humanities can be described as the study of how people process and document the human experience. Since humans have been able, we have used philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world. These modes of expression have become some of the subjects that traditionally fall under the humanities umbrella. Knowledge of these records of human experience gives us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to those who have come before us, as well as to our contemporaries.

-- Stanford website

 

Secondly, if your aim is to remove the "humanities" entirely from schools and teach everyone about computer coding and financial models, you've got to ask a few more questions.

 

Are the only things worth studying (in life) the things that will help us get jobs and fit into society as Google drones?

 

What makes you think that studying van Gogh ever helped anyone except people who wanted to study van Gogh?

 

What makes you think that nobody wants to study van Gogh?

 

If all art -- music, painting, sculpture, literature, television, movies, and many more -- is obsolete, then yes, the humanities are obsolete. But I hope they never will be.

[zerostao]

what exactly is "that job" ??

i reckon we dont need humanities in our schools anyways.

we should all become mindless drone workers who live to work and work to live, the rest is just nonsense.

and we should work beside other drone workers. emotionless and without passion.

without anything to talk/think about except the work task at hand.

its not like we are humanity so why should we care about humanities !

bleh-eck

besides when a.i. robots take over and control everything let them study humanities

i have no desire to at all,,,humanities what a bunch of hogwash

 

edit>>once there was a great visionary named pol pot who when he came to power decided to kill the doctors and lawyers, the artists, writers, educators, and intellectuals. his plan was to wipe out all cultural identity and the humanities.

now i certainly dont condone violence such as murder and torture like the great pol pot

but if we can remove the studies of humanities from our schools,, hey they are obsolete anyways,

we can still achieve pol pots dream.

 

Edited October 14, 2014 by zerostao

[ValleyStream]

What are you studying? I was asking more Philosophically which is funny cause philosophy is a humanity depending on who you ask.

 

Computer engineering is my major and i am required to take social sciences and humanities every year. I go to an engineering school and the "humanities" departments are very small compared to the sciences departments.

[woodcarver]

You could always homeschool your kids

[ralis]

So I cant really think of anyone else to ask, I will be searching around the internet to find other forums to ask on but this one has a diverse group of people and I would like your input. In modern day education are the humanities really needed? Have they become obsolete? If I want to become a data-center admin running servers for Google what good does learning Shakespeare do in preparing me for that job? How does studying a Vincent van Gogh painting help me?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

The main reason for studying the humanities is to develop critical thinking skills.

[mewtwo]

The main reason for studying the humanities is to develop critical thinking skills.

 

Cant I develop critical reasoning skills just by troubleshooting computers? please explain why this way teaches me how to analyse and evaluate to form a judgement. I believe I can do that through other means.

[ralis]

Cant I develop critical reasoning skills just by troubleshooting computers? please explain why this way teaches me how to analyse and evaluate to form a judgement. I believe I can do that through other means.

 

Instead of giving you the answer, why not conduct some research on your own.

[mewtwo]

Instead of giving you the answer, why not conduct some research on your own.

 

 

I did and all signs point to simba, but I could try tossing the cake again in order to make the french toast sing while the bees dance in the tree but hamburgers dont want to eat the french fries.

[ralis]

Logic and philosophy for starters

[mewtwo]

logically we should castrate all sex offenders. Why don't people do this if humanities teaches logic?

 

I have philosophically debated and proven through my debates that the moon is made of Swiss cheese not provolone like my opponent thought. What happens when an astronaut hands me a chunk of moon rock?

 

Lol I'm philosophizing in a thread talking about philosophy and humanities being dead.

[thelerner]

Cant I develop critical reasoning skills just by troubleshooting computers? please explain why this way teaches me how to analyse and evaluate to form a judgement. I believe I can do that through other means.

Yes, but studying computers only won't make you a well rounded person. We don't know what we Don't Know. There are things considered classics (ancient and modern) that we've never been exposed to and without some instruction often can't fully appreciate.

 

A good education should go beyond vocational matters. It should open up your mind to great ideas. That's the idea behind universities since ancient Greek days. Cause part of the problem is a work is the most important thing attitude.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

The Humanities should help people to see the world, life, culture, people, humanity, with more depth. Without this depth, there is little reason for "humanity," ie., seeing people as more than numbers and objects. Lack of the humanities breeds inhumanity. This is part of the reason why the ancient Chinese imperial exams focused on the writings of philosophers.

[Flolfolil]

...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Flolfolil

[katsura]

Imagine a world without culture or abstract thought--that's why the humanities are important.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

I understand the American college system forces students to take classes irrelevant for them - yeah, I guess a student of medicine shouldn't be forced to read poetry on the side. I don't know how this works in American high school, but over here if we do A-levels too we can do whatever we want - I don't think someone at that age should be forced to do humanities if only science is clearly their thing, either.

 

But earlier than that, teaching humanities is very valuable for society. Research shows that reading novels increases empathy (valuable for cultivators too, eh?). Exposing kids to other views and lifestyles and having them debate an author's ideas is an exercise in critical thought, eloquence, empathy and rhetoric. These are transferable skills. You can get bare logic from coding, but that isn't good practice for moral dilemmas, life decisions or human interaction.

 

I'm studying English, I meet a lot of other English students who hate science and a lot of science students who hate humanities. Personally I like both. Society wouldn't work as it does without the sciences, but without culture, what would you do all day? The humanities have an aesthetic and cultural value.

 

There are plently of jobs based on humanities, too. While the world could function without these, it would be a bit bland if it did. Science made your TV - humanities made the shows.

[dust]

I find it interesting when OPs pose a problem and then only respond to things they believe they have an answer to, in order to reinforce their own fundamentally flawed view of the world.

 

Why do people bother if they're not actually looking for answers?

[zerostao]

Cant I develop critical reasoning skills just by troubleshooting computers? please explain why this way teaches me how to analyse and evaluate to form a judgement. I believe I can do that through other means.

YOU could have chosen to attend a trade school specific to fit your goal.

if you desire a university degree with all the rights, privileges, and honors thereunto appertaining

then you certainly need to appreciate, respect, and study the humanities.

choices and actions--you could learn about existentialism in humanities courses.

[thelerner]

bit of a side topic, but being a business major (minor computer science) I thought most of the classes were way to theoretical and quite frankly bull shit. Yet at 18 years old I wasn't mature enough to face the world. I had no particular goal, fire or direction. College was a time to find direction, discuss great and silly thoughts with my peers, a chance to enjoy myself before entering the long and somewhat dreary real world of 9 to 6 work.