In Defense of the Humanities

Guest Opinion

A post-secondary education based upon science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is promoted by politicians and government leaders as the best path for students to follow in college and trade schools. As the argument goes, most jobs in the future will require a solid background in those disciplines, at the same time implying that college degrees in English, foreign languages, art and design, the social sciences, and philosophy are a waste of time and money. An education in the humanities simply doesn’t “pay off.”

I have one foot in STEM and another in humanities. I hold a BA degree with a concentration in biology, an MS in biology, and an Ed.D. (doctorate in education), specializing in science education.

With that background, I have developed an appreciation of science and the methods it uses to reach conclusions. Consequently, I do not advocate an education that avoids science and mathematics. Instead, I want an education vibrant with both science and the humanities.

I was lucky to have gone to college at a time when tuition was cheap. Before I set upon becoming a science teacher in the public school, I became interested in the languages of East Asia, both Chinese and Japanese. Obtaining a degree in East Asian Languages and Literature, I was able to spend a year in Japan studying that language intensively, living in non-English speaking neighborhoods. In the end, I dropped my goal of becoming a professor of Chinese or Japanese, drawn to biology and teaching instead. I never used my knowledge of those languages. A waste of time and money—or was it?

Understanding and speaking a foreign language opens windows to a new culture. You come to realize that there are many ways of experiencing life, not just the blinkered perspective you have developed in the social conditioning you received during childhood and afterwards.

The Japanese say “gambatte!” when they visit someone suffering illness or accident in a hospital, a phrase that means “fight your best fight!”, an encouragement not equivalent to anything we might say. Participation in another culture opens our eyes to different ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. It is antithetical to ideas of knee-jerk patriotism or an insistence that our culture is superior to all others.

Besides stretching my mind, education in East Asian languages did something else: slurping up soba noodles with two chopsticks brought me as much joy as devouring a homemade slice of apple pie!

My education in the humanities has done more than foster openness of mind. Courses in English helped make me a better writer. A course in photography made me a more critical viewer of works of art. Folkdance helped me overcome shyness, teaching me to move my body to melodies very different from those that surround me. Even science courses unconnected to problem-solving courses in chemistry or physics—botany, for example—converted a simple walk through the woods into a trip through the plains of Africa, the organisms I encounter every bit as exotic as lions and zebras.

Education stretches us—at its best, it whets our appetite to learn more, not to secure more income but to grant us moments of appreciation of the wonders all about us.

Humans do certain jobs better than AI, many of those associated with lines of work deemed unproductive or less productive of generating wealth, jobs such as social workers, preschool teachers, nurses, actors, and writers. While AI may write decent computer programs, it is less successful in comforting a child who suffered a fall on playground equipment.

Teaching programs work for some students, but not most, who would prefer live beings with real personalities and a sense of humor for their teachers. The humanities serve the needs of humankind, not the creation and processing of data, an insight that should not be surprising given the common root word, “human.”

Finally, we must not forget the role of humanities in enabling us to maintain a democracy. A government of, for, and by the people only exists in a climate of freely shared information gathered from a wide variety of reliable sources. It founders if the people are poorly informed, misinformed, or apathetic. It fails if citizens cannot follow arguments, justify their own beliefs, criticize opinions based upon speculation and cheap propaganda, or change their minds as circumstances dictate.

The social sciences provide perspectives on politics outside the narrow limits of our own experience. History provides us with an understanding of how things came to be as they are. Philosophy can help us establish a system of values that we can use in making political decisions. In short, the humanities make us better citizens.

Richard Fidler is a former public school teacher for Traverse City Area Public Schools who has written about the history and natural history of the area.

View On Our Website