Changing the mindset toward Humanities

The latter, which includes English/English Literature, History and Social Studies and other related disciplines, has long been neglected in our institutions of learning because of the new emphasis on science and technology and vocational education in the so-called age of technology .

Granted that such emphasis suits the times in which we live, planners and policy-makers have long relegated the Arts into this secondary position in the curriculum without fully understanding the important balance which the Humanities provides to the “robotic” mindset which science and technology in themselves , cultivate in our students.

Let me illustrate with a poignant example from days at Naps my Alma Mater as an “A” level student ! Our”A” level competitors at Pres from the other side of town were often reputed to be “Science” in orientation while we were condescendingly described as “Arts “,but we often ridiculed them by suggesting that for them, tears from a girl was merely a mixture of sodium chloride and water while for us it was an expression of the deepest emotion which often earned us the cuddle which was often denied them , and along the same lines , a rose from a Naps boy to a girl earned him the most genteel appreciation , while the Pres guy, missing the deep symbolism of the gesture, got a slap instead for tearing apart her cherished memento which he regarded as a mere mix of pistils and stamen! Funny it was, even hyperbolic, but it illustrates the fundamental mindset of a student grounded in the scientific way to the neglect of the Humanities . A way has to be found to balance “the fact” of science and technology with the nuances of the human experience to be found in the Arts, and with English/ English Literature exposing students to the emotion at play in a wide variety of situations and students learning about” life” from the literary experience even before they have lived it, and with History , giving the student a sense of self both, personal and Caribbean, and with Social sciences helping them to understand the factors at work which impact their lives, the result is an education which is less information based and more developmental in character, producing a student who is knowledgeable about the facts , but also more “human”. So with Critical Thinking fostering the interrogatve spirit leading to more informed choices and the Humanities creating a student with a greater understanding of what it is to be human can we not hope to have less of those who would strip a man’s car as he lies dying from an accident as in today’s news , inter alia? Dr Errol Benjamin via email