Why the Humanities Course
M. McMann
1970
Citations
0
Citations
Journal
English in Education
Semantic Scholar
Key Takeaway Key Takeaway: Humanities courses aim to provide students with a better understanding of human thought and culture through various forms of expression, including literature, art, music, and history.
Abstract
A common assumption in many colleges and high schools is that all students should be "exposed" to a "body of knowledge" embracing man's culture and thought about his philosophic theories, his intellectual achievements and his ideas about himself. But to make any summary of the methods by which each institution achieves its goal is a formidable task. For instance, at Columbia University the freshmen in humanities study "classics" of western civilization, including Homer and Dostoevski; at Reed College, Oregon, the course, a two-year sequence, is intended to "acquaint students with what men have thought and done individually and socially in the past and present, and with the means by which they have expressed their ideas and feelings." The catalog description adds that students will explore "poetry, drama, painting, sculpture, music, religions, philosophic systems, forms of political and social order, historical works." Some schools such as the University of Missouri-Kansas City or St. Louis University do not have one course, but require specific courses in an area designated as the "Humanities." Missouri high schools teaching a humanities course often relate it to the "Allied Arts" of the Missouri course of study in which a conscious effort is made to relate literature and the fine arts, music, painting, sculpture and architecture. Other plans are too numerous to mention, and would give us little more information. We would discover, however, that all have a common aim: that is, to give the student some acquaintance with man's cultural past by means of knowing