It is my firm belief that an education in the humanities can be greatly rewarding in both a professional and a personal sense. Below is an essay I wrote concerning the reasons why I believe the humanities are crucial to any well-rounded education.
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It is no secret that liberal arts education has become increasingly criticized over the past decades due to the rising call for more practical education methods. Many people today would argue that humanities education is becoming more and more irrelevant due to the growing demands of a global economy and technologically advancing society. I would posit the exact opposite; I believe that the expansion in these areas is why we need the humanities more than ever before. With the advent of social networking and other forms of internet media, it is a legitimate fear that we are becoming increasingly out of touch with our own humanity. Although recent advancements in technology and science have had numerous benefits, it is important that we balance these developments with a keen respect to our own capacity for human empathy and compassion. The human tendency to want to simplify ideas, which is in part enabled by internet media and social networks, can be detrimental to our ability to reason in a complex and thorough manner; subjects in the humanities challenge students to consider several facets of an issue before coming to a conclusion about it. This is the reason why humanities education is still so vital: in a time where so many of us are tempted to choose the most obvious solution to a problem, humanities education dares and requires its students to think critically before choosing a mode of action. The value of the humanities is inherent in their collective title—they express what it means to be a human being, gifted with the ability to logically reason and carefully weigh options, ideas, and emotions. It is necessary that humanities education continue to be emphasized and expanded in all levels of education because of its inherent relation to our daily personal and professional challenges.