ENGL 112 30688121

Save Humanity! Vincent Li

Our task is to educate [the students'] whole being so they can face the future, wrote the author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything and educational reformist Sir Ken Robinson. This passionate advisor on education explicitly suggests that we are residing in perturbed times where society blindly yearns for graduates who complete technical programs - pursuing a practical degree that society wants rather than a thoughtful degree which the student is impassioned. In line with the thoughts of Mr. Robinson is Professor Nussbaum who states in a recent interview that what were getting now is the demand for a quick fix for economic problems using highly applied technical skills. Consequentially, the age-old study of original endeavours and liberal arts is suppressed - or worse, neglected altogether - by world leaders. The evident issue is that these technical degrees generally lack the aspect of critical thinking which studies in humanities accentuate, leaving the bright minds of tomorrow rich with information but insufficiently funded in the bank of curious thoughts. These bright minds have influences from many sources including the current social order, parental impact, job prospects, and personal interests. Social order illustrates to students that politicians...are demanding a greater share of the global economy and are demanding more technical education. Students dash ambitiously towards that attractive neon green ball on their all-fours - as society yells fetch - only to return what the students have so diligently worked towards back into the hands of authority figures. This, unfortunately, hinders students from attaining full potential in a field which they ardently gravitate towards. Parents want their children to get ahead by cut[ting] the arts and focus[ing] on useful marketable skills. In result, the leash around the neck of students is pulled increasingly taut. Moreover, the dog trainers are whipped. Society and parental figures rarely compensate enough in resolution of such a message communicated, sometimes forcibly drilled, deep within the minds of students. Indeed, the responsibility is placed on parents and the society to recognize that this world cannot exist effectively based solely on marketable skills, that operation requires more than simple formulae and methods of processing, that studies of thoughtful arguments which constructively criticize are essential to the psychological survival of humanity. Their task is to educate the students whole being so they can face the future.