Saving The Humanities Analysis

Hope for the Humanities

The popularity of the humanities majors (English, History, Literature, the Arts, and Religion) has declined in the past years in favor of S.T.E.M. majors (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Even our government has reduced the funding for the humanitarian majors by 28.5 million dollars from 2010 to 2013. In the article “The Economic Case for Saving the Humanities” Christina Paxon makes an excellent argument in favor of supporting the Humanities studies. I have not given enough thought in the past but after reading this article I agree with her argument. She has made me realize how imperative the humanities studies are to society. She has given strong supportive evidence for how the humanities studies
have helped us in the past, how they are helping us in the present, and how they will continue to help us further in the future.

Firstly, Undergraduates have the opportunity to learn about the past and the present.
They are able to use that knowledge to answer questions of how some events came to be and will be able to have a better understanding of what will happen in the future. To help understand situations in the future we need history. History will help paint a bigger picture of what leaded up to what affected this event. DeWitt Clinton Poole, the founding director of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, said that his school’s need was not for “young men minutely trained in specific technicalities” rather a “broad culture that will enlarge the individual’s mental scope to world dimensions”. He wants his curriculum to be centered around not just one or two disciplines but all of them so that his students may be able to have more knowledge about the world. Alumni from the humanities side and S.T.E.M. side have worked hand in hand to better help the community. When they cross-pollinate they are able to invent surprising results. They are able to enrich and benefit from each other. We should have students learn humanities because they will be able to express opinions and facts better. They have the right to free speech but in order to talk you need to be able to formulate an idea which is what humanities will help you do in
English.

Secondly, we should not turn other types of research before we know the types of benefits it could allow in the future. Abraham Flexner says in his book “The usefulness of Useless Knowledge”, Men and women who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely the desire to satisfy their curiosity”. This is important because a lot of the inventions today were founded on curiosity, rather than people who thought it would be helpful in the future. Humanists came into great use when the 9/11 attack happened. Everyone turned to them to figure out the background of the then terrorist culture which would lead to why they went through with the attack. Humanists as the article says were in “fully engaged” to figure out what happened. The citizens turned to the humanists because they were the people who studied about different cultures and cultural phycology there whole entire life.

Humanists are essential in this society because they are able to answer questions that other may not be able to.
Students should learn about humanities so that one they too can solve important issues to benefit the society. In the article it says, “Let’s do more to encourage cross-pollination between the science and the humanities for the benefit of each”. This means that we should have scientist and humanists work together to enrich and benefit each other. Horace Mann was an American Politian and School Reformer who believed that we should have a fair school system based on the quality of teachers and the kind of approach the schools took. He said, “…it was impossible to expect meaningful citizenship without offering people the tools to inform themselves about all the great questions of life”. He also believed that after being taught humanities that we should go out into society and do great things with the knowledge you have learned before you die.
In conclusion I agree with Ms. Paxon because it is important that we learn all of these subjects. We have to be able to know about the past, how to speak, and how to read. Humanist help teach us certain things that scientists, mathematicians, and engineers cant. They have different skills that when put together can help benefit what need to be done. I don’t think is fair that humanities ungraduates are given higher tuition rates then S.T.E.M. students. I believe that students in all majors should pay the same amount of tuition.
I agree with keeping humanities and continuing to educate students in their fields.