I’ve always questioned why as a STEM major why we were required to take some of the humanities courses. Certain courses are completely justifiable, like English and other writing courses, however I never could understand why I was require to take a film video studies course, early American history, world dance, philosophy, and psychology. While I can admit they are interesting but I don’t think they had any profound impact on making me a better engineer. Considering those credit hours probably cost me somewhere on the order of 10,000 dollars I was less than enthused I had to take them/ spend this money. I think at the time I thought that this was just the university’s way to make more money or pad stats for those departments. I don’t want sound arrogant / now I have a better appreciation for having had taken those courses but I wanted to look at articles justifying the need for better rounded students. That way I could maybe give my students a better answer to this question.
I think this quote does the argument for teaching humanities a lot of justice “The humanities are more about questions than answers, and we’re going to wrestle with some ridiculously big questions in this class. Like, What is truth anyway? How do we know something is true? Or rather, why do we believe certain things are true and other things aren’t? And how do we decide whether something is wrong or right to do, for us personally or for society as a whole?” I do think in this day and age we have become a society that holds since as the ultimate truth. I do think the humanities help us become better thinkers and question some of the science . It also helps us better postulate arguments and reasoning in such a digital age. I would also argue that studying the humanities helps create more 3d people. Sure I can be an all-star in my field but if I can’t relay what I am thinking or researching what good will that do me? I think the humanities help us become more social and creative writers and orators. What do you guys think?
References:
https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2018/05/02/why-stem-majors-need-the-humanities-and-vice-versa
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/why-stem-students-need-humanities-courses/