what is humanities class

what is humanities class

Understanding the Importance and Impact of Humanities Education

1. Introduction to Humanities Education

We need programs in humanities to give students the expertise to connect their knowledge to a diverse and global society. Faculties in the humanities provide the types of experiences that challenge students to be acutely aware of their environments. Existing in a global environment demands citizens that can communicate, analyze, and solve complex problems and take action from their experiences. This is the essence of a humanities discipline. These programs focus deeply, critically, and analytically on topics to promote a greater understanding of the human condition and our place in the world. Educational experiences in environments that engage differences, and difficult conversations benefit students both inside and outside the classroom. It is important to maintain access to diverse environments and university support to continue this work and to do so effectively. The learning that occurs as a result of the relationship is deeply transformative and goes beyond a transfer of information. This, critics often overlook. We argue that a humanities education is not only beneficial but necessary.

It is not uncommon for humanities programs to be under constant scrutiny or to face threats of reductions in funding. This scrutiny, primarily from external stakeholders such as the general public or even university administrators, typically asks the question, “What good are the humanities?” In the United States, the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields or degrees are often hailed as the most important. In STEM, students receive the “best” preparation for employment, while the value of the humanities has been questioned and, at times, dismissed. However, the fact remains that while the STEM fields promote job-specific skills, undergraduate education in the humanities does, in fact, provide significant value that is worthy of consideration and support.

2. The Evolution and Scope of Humanities Disciplines

Variants of the term include: “humanity” in English and Latin and its direct history, the adjective “human” and the manual “humane”. The history scholar tells us that the term in English “represents humanistic knowledge about human principles, the aesthetic themes and aspects of life, and the understanding of what is human.” The fundamental disciplines and the last interdisciplinary areas in anthropology, classics, history, languages, linguistics, literature studies, musicology, and philosophy. Scholars involved in some disciplines such as aesthetics also consider the disciplines to be part of the humanities, as it studies art and music.

Academic disciplines in North America and Europe, typically among the liberal arts, are often designated as “humanities.” In many colleges, high schools, and academies located in the United States, the state of Washington, and California, universities have specific requirements for degrees like a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in the humanities. While the subjects in the humanities are typically English, American Sign Language (ASL), Fine Arts, Music, and theatre, people in “hinging” disciplines often consider many areas to be in the humanities because of their feminist theories such as women’s studies, gay and lesbian studies, and ethnic studies as applied to the war in Iraq, the attack of September 11, 2001, and to more as a protest to the military field and to the social justice insurgences.

3. Key Skills and Benefits of Studying Humanities

In conclusion, we do not need to make so much money and can be happier by choosing the field of study in which we are most interested and talented. Our dominant learning modes may well recommend a life in the humanities. The need for science, to make scientists, may need rethinking. Knowledge of humanity remains an economic imperfection and a difficult subject to convey in market terms. It will never be recession-proof, but the resting step to allow consideration of some of its impact and damage will in society.

Humanity education is an understudied field with far-reaching lifestyle, health, and attitude impacts. Focused mainly on history, drama, and the arts, its approach to personal skills and knowledge is through a different route from all of the science-based systems studied so heavily. Yet still, “Knowledge of humanity continues to aid the world in its major human problems…” Science operates within this knowledge and contributes to these human problems, but we still maintain a belief that this knowledge is useful. It is appreciated that “knowledge of calamity,” as the main learning for history is seen, also opens a fuller understanding and a more mature response to the world’s problems. By putting people and actions into their place, full personality behavior can be understood, the incredible problems of the world developed, and permitted for correction. The world belongs to people. Science may help mold its structure and direction, but only humanity will enable the effective use of responsible power.

4. Challenges and Misconceptions Surrounding Humanities Education

The world is full of phenomena, but time, space and the human brain do not allow us to include all phenomena into our equations at once. For this reason, we, hopefully explicitly, provide simplified versions of reality. The use of different media, in particular the use of online data sources, may indeed be helpful. We should be convinced that not every researcher can achieve the same results with the same data sources, e.g. because not every individual has the same language skills. The final rejoinder to well-known stereotypes, then, should be an order of magnitude bigger and/or better than the sheer amount of data used by ‘outsiders.’

In the previous section, I introduced the notion of ‘humanities.’ Here I focus on the challenges and misconceptions that explain the state of humanities education today. As the umbrella term for what we study and teach in the humanities, the word ‘humanities’ has indeed proved helpful. However, what is helpful can also be problematic if no dots are connected. Most people have some stereotypes associated with hitchhikers and academics, and there are some basis for some of them. If a scholar does not see the webcam or the scanner as a window to the world and perceives the travel grant as free souvenir money, that is one point. Also, if a scholar is supposed to be the carrier of information but proves not to be able to convey a message, that is another.

5. The Future of Humanities in Education and Society

Given the breadth and depth of its inquiries, humanities offer the intellectual range and flexibility required to tackle vital issues and questions confronting the generations of today and tomorrow. Enlisted to serve as a partner and an integral part of sciences and engineering, the humanities can contribute constructive responses and new directions. Such contributions can increase our understanding of the powerful forces that drive the world in unexpected ways, the underlying motivations and mechanisms of reset, and come to recognize the limits and excesses of knowledge and culture and its consequences. Moreover, by design, the humanities nurture such qualities as critical and ethical reflection, respect for the creative arts and the use of techniques to achieve harmonious, meaningful, and abundant life. The culmination of these activities is to produce a holistic change that influences individuals, laws, policies, and institutions with respect to profound and enduring questions of purpose, human identity, natural environment, responsible stewardship, and the challenges and rewards of living in a complex world.

Critical stakeholders in society have voiced concerns about the potential decline or neglect of the humanities due to recent robust and growing interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Through this comparison and analysis, reflect on the question of why humanities education has come to suffer a degree of eclipse in the current educational and funding climate. We then discuss some potential consequences of this eclipse, while making the case for the continued relevance of humanities in education, innovation, and society. Finally, we propose a set of positive steps to increase the awareness and impact of humanities by connecting humanities more closely with the challenges of modern-day societies. In conclusion, we underscore the urgency of these matters by considering the impact that the humanities can have on transforming and enriching a world in need of new approaches, new ideas, and new solutions, thereby revitalizing the importance and impact of humanities education and research.