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To begin this course, it is important to spend a few minutes articulating the importance
of studying humanities. The study of the humanities does not provide direct training
or skill building for a specific job or career path.
Rather, it provides the chance to develop critical thinking skills,
expand civic and historical knowledge and use ethical reasoning.
The purpose of studying Humanities is for personal growth and participation
in a free democracy, regardless of your future career choice.
Since I am a historian, this course is framed in the academic discipline of History.
History teaches us how those who came before us confronted past challenges.
As human beings we gain insight into our current circumstances
by studying historical events and thought. However, humanities encompasses much more.
The study of literature, philosophy, religion, art and music will be incorporated
into this class as these academic disciplines provide insight
into the human experience. While History tells the story of people,
literature instructs us about human needs, desires, and motivations;
philosophy helps to clarify and illuminate what, in the end, is truly of value;
and religion enlightens how humans expressed the deepest questions about life
and death and love and hate, that characterize the human condition.
Music and Art not only connect human beings in intangible ways,
but also serves as a creative release needed to express what we experience
in this world. Taken together, the humanities give all of us a fuller sense
of what is possible, desirable, and right. The study of the humanities has a rich tradition
in Western Civilization. In the United States the importance and value
of studying the academic disciplines in the humanities was institutionalized by
federal legislation sponsored by a Rhode Island Senator named Clairborne
Pell in 1965. Many of you may be familiar with Senator Pell
(especially if you applied for Federal Financial Aid)
because his surname bears the title of the grant some students receive.
Pell also left a mark when he helped establish an endowment for the humanities
with a mandate to foster “national progress” in the discipline.
In some of the loftiest language ever to appear in federal legislation,
the act declared that "a high civilization must not limit its efforts
to science and technology alone but must give full value and support
to the other great branches of man's scholarly and cultural activity
in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present
and a better view of the future."i I think Pell articulates well
why the study of the humanities is an important component of an educated society
(even though his choice of pronouns leaves out the female gender).
So, it is with this spirit that I welcome you to our learning community
and wish you well as study the disciplines of History,
Literature, Music, Art, Philosophy and Religion this quarter.
The first task begins now by connecting personal, learned and collective values to the humanities.
When using the term “values”, I am referring to broad general beliefs or attitudes
about something prized or desired. Some of these beliefs guide
and motivate human conduct and action. Values also reflect personal beliefs, learned
beliefs and collective beliefs. In order to begin the first discussion assignment,
I want you to reflect on some questions? What influenced my personal value system?
For example, as an individual I value relationships. The ones I have with my husband and children
are especially important to me. I believe one of the roots of this personal
value comes from my orphaned grandfather. As the patriarch of a family of 13, he choose
those relationships after experiencing the isolation of growing
up alone. He and my grandmother passed down this value
to my father who passed it along to me. Think about your personal values? What are
the foundations of the one’s you treasure? Did I learn some of the values I hold? If
yes, what institutions, organizations, or people taught you something that influences
your value system? My parents did not come from educated families.
My father served as an infantry soldier in WWII and received the GI Bill upon discharge.
My mother came from a society that did not value educating women.
In the 1970’s, when the community college movement was in full swing,
my mother had the opportunity to return to school and earn a degree.
She and I graduated from college and high school at the same time.
My parent’s desire to become college graduates influenced my value system.
I believe this LEARNED value is why I hold education as a core.
What values did you learn? Did they come from your family, a teacher,
a preacher or someone else who was influential in your life?
Or, did you learn values through the media or written sources?
What forces or events sway society’s collective value system?
Do values exist that are held by a collective group?
For example do all Americans hold a collective value?
Or do Christians hold collective values? OR…do Republicans hold collective values?
I definitely hold dear the value of free speech. This value directly comes from some of the
Enlightened thinkers we will study in this class.
It also stems from Greek philosophers like Socrates
and the great playwright William Shakespeare who wrote “To thine own self be true”.
What better inspiration exists to inspire one to express yourself.?
Many of our collective values have deep roots in the events,
people and expressions of the past. This course will give you an opportunity to explore many
of them. Once you have mulled over those questions
I posed about personal, learned and collective values, click on the
“Values Exercise” in the Table of Contents in this module.
Then proceed to the discussion section and follow the directions for this first task.