-
Unit 2
The humanities: Out of
date?
1
When
the
going
gets
tough,
the
tough
take
accounting.
When
the
job
market
worsens, many students
calculate
they
can't major in English or history.
They have to
study something
that
boosts
their
prospects
of
landing a job.
2
The data show that as students have
increasingly shouldered the
ever
-
rising cost of
tuition,
they
have
defected
from
the
study
of
the
humanities
and
toward
applied
science
and
skills
that
they
bet
will
lead
to
employment.
In
other
words,
a
college
education
is
more
and
more
seen
as
a
means
for
economic
betterment rather
than a means for human betterment.
This is a trend that is likely to
persist
and
even
accelerate.
3
Over
the
next
few
years,
as
labor
markets
struggle,
the
humanities
will
probably
continue
their
long
slide
in
succession.
There
already
has
been
a
nearly
50
percent
decline in the
portion of
liberal
arts
majors over the past generation, and it
is
logical
to
think
that
the
trend
is
bound
to
continue
or
even
accelerate.
Once
the
dominant
pillars
of
university
life,
the
humanities
now
play
little
roles
when
students take their college
tours.
These days, labs are
more
vivid
and
compelling
than
libraries.
4
Here, please
allow me to stand up for and
promote
the true
value that the humanities
add
to
people's
lives.
Since
ancient
times,
people
have
speculated
about
the
mystery
of
those
inner
forces
that
drive
some
people
to
greatness
and
others
to
self
-
destruction.
This
inner
drive
has
been
called
many
things
over
the
centuries.
The famous psychologist,
Sigmund Freud, called it the
or, more familiarly,
5
From
the
beginning
of
time,
this
inner
aspect
of
our
being,
this
drive
that
can
be
constructive or
destructive, has captured our
imagination.
The stories of
this amazing
struggle
have
formed
the
basis
of
cultures
the
world
over.
Historians,
architects,
authors,
philosophers
and
artists
have
captured
the
words,
images
and
meanings
of
this
inner
struggle
in
the
form
of
story,
music,
myth,
painting,
architecture,
sculpture,
landscape
and
traditions.
These
men
and
women
developed
artistic
that
help
us
understand
these
aspirations
and
also
educate
generations.
This
fertile
body
of
work
from
ancient
times,
the
very
foundation
of
civilization, forms the basis of study
of the humanities.
6
Studying the
humanities improves our ability to read and
write.
No matter what we
do
in
life,
we
will
have
a
huge
advantage
if
we
can
read
complex
ideas
and
understand
their
meaning.
We
will
have
a
bright
career
if
we
are
the
person
in
the
office who can write a clear
and
elegant
analysis
of those
ideas!
7
Studying
the
humanities
makes
us
familiar
with
the
language
of
emotion
and
the
creative process.
In an information economy, many people
have the ability to produce
a useful
product such as a new MP3 player.
Yet, very few people have the ability
to
create
a
spectacular
brand:
the
iPod.
Most
importantly,
studying
the
1