Education For Citizenship In Era Of Global Connections

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Why Study Humanities?

Humanities could be described as the study of how humans of multiple ethnicities, gender, sex process and document their human experiences. Humanities could be based on philosophy, however, humanities can be applied to anything around us such as, religion, art, music, history, and language. When humanities are applied to these subjects, we gain a better understanding and record of our world. Knowledge of these records of human experience gives us the opportunity to understand the connection between our previous generation as well as this generation. The study of humanities can be used to realize different interpretations of life and history. Studying facts of the past helps to understand literature of the past, but humanities …show more content…

Martha Nussbaum, the author of “Education for Citizenship in Era of Global Connections,” states that higher education makes an important contribution to citizenship; also, that liberal arts education such as humanities provides fundamental and necessary tools to advance critical thinking and the control over our imagination. In the essay, “The Death of Universities” by Terry Eagleton, he states that the decline of humanities in the present education systems suggests that there is a negatively misleading definition to higher education and to universities itself. In the article, “Education for Citizenship in Era of Global Connections,” the author states, “education will develop each person’s capacity to be fully human, by which he means self-aware, self-governing, and capable of recognizing and respecting the humanity of all our fellow human beings, no matter where they are born, no matter what social class they inhabit, no matter what their gender or ethnic origin.” (Nussbaum, 290) Seneca, a member of the Socrates, had a huge influence on the modern democratic thoughts about humanities. Seneca believed that education for citizenship should not just be about taking orders, but to think beyond an instruction and to questions and to critically think about it. Today’s universities are shaping future citizens in an age of cultural diversity, where we are increasingly told to understand how issues such as agriculture, human rights, ecology, even business and industry, are generating discussions that bring people together from different nations. This is an example of humanity, where multiple nations come together however; recent research done by Dr. Donna Kotsopoulos mentioned that “science students need the liberal arts.” Dr. Kotsopoulos, explains that liberal arts education at many universities