Today begins Philosophy Month. A good time to reflect on the importance of the humanities or humanities. Because they are increasingly falling out of favor, because the practical use is less on the surface than in most practical studies. But precisely at a time when computers are taking more and more work off our hands, we should attach great value to uniquely human competences, such as a sense of language and philosophical thinking.
This week I attended a symposium about the Dutch school subject. Both academics and teachers expressed their concerns about current education, in which the emphasis is increasingly on testing and therefore on practical application and less on knowledge. In the sentence analysis, students are mainly given mnemonics, but they often do not know why those mnemonics work (or don't).
The emphasis is on the how, and less on the why. This applies to Dutch subjects, but just as much to other subjects. It also has nothing to do with Dutch teachers, or with the new generation of students, but everything to do with the zeitgeist.
Yin Yang
We live in an age of technology and globalization, writes American journalist Fareed Zakaria in his recently published book Praise of the Humanities. In this we seem to only have an eye for everything that has immediate practical use. According to him, a good school unites the practical with the philosophical.
That is also how the American liberal education system is constructed. But even in America, the cradle of free schooling, the humanities are now coming into behavior. Time for reflection, Zakaria also believes.
It seems like the old discussion:which is more important, alpha or beta? Spiritual Science or Natural Science? Which of course applies the yin-yang principle:both need each other. The same goes for the balance between knowledge and skills. The aim of Yale University (where Zakaria studied) in 1928 was twofold:to teach students to think and to provide their minds with a certain content. But thinking now takes second place, while it deserves a first rank.
Writing Education
More attention for thinking, that is what the Dutchmen argue for in their Manifesto. Zakaria also puts thinking first. According to him, the best way to think is to put your thoughts on paper. In short, learning to write clearly is the basis of a good education for him. Even for technologists, engineers and physicists, being able to write clearly is one of the most important prerequisites for their career, Zakaria shows. And to be able to write well, you need good knowledge of grammar, I would add.
Besides the importance of good writing education, Zakaria emphasizes the importance of being able to speak well in public (rhetoric) and 'learning how to learn'. And that is crucial in a world that is changing so rapidly with all the technological developments that the current generation of students is actually being trained for jobs that do not yet exist. Because computers are taking more and more work off our hands, it is important to pay attention to skills that are uniquely human in education. And then it mainly concerns skills that require common sense.
Mind-expanding
The author thus shows that the alpha subjects do have a practical importance, but not only that. They help people broaden the mind. Literature confronts us with new ideas, experiences and emotions. Just like other art forms. History puts current problems in a new light. Philosophy helps us think about ourselves and the world around us. You can find this spiritual expansion in all humanities, and for your self-development it is important that you can follow your own interests in this. That is what the author states and is also my own experience.
As a student, I had a tremendous hunger for knowledge and I eagerly took advantage of the free choice space at my university. I filled this with a propaedeutic philosophy, among other things. The knowledge I gained was crucial for my self-development. As well as membership of the student association Prometheus. There I came into contact with students from the humanities, sciences and social sciences. There we could philosophize endlessly about the meaning of life. I hope that the future generation of students will also get and seize this opportunity. Zakaria also knows how to word it exactly right in his last paragraph, which I like to end with:
“Because we live in the present age, all of us, young and old, spend too little time and effort thinking about the meaning of life. We do too little self-examination, so we know too little about our strengths and weaknesses. And because we don't look around us much, and don't look at the world and don't look back at history, we don't ask ourselves enough deep and broad questions. The solution to this problem is that, right now, we all need a little more liberal education can use.”