John Milton
By Marvin Olasky
Two days before the summer solstice, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences with great fanfare released “The Heart of the Matter,” a blue-ribbon-panel document emphasizing the need to beef up teaching of the humanities. From a rung high up on the ladder of abstraction, the AAAS commission in 92 pages came out in support of “full literacy … cohesive curricula … new partnerships.”
Why should we love the humanities? Let the AAAS count the ways. The humanities give students “the ability to adapt and thrive in a changing world” and help them develop “professional flexibility” and connectedness with “the global community.” Hmmm—How about growing some students who don’t adapt so flexibly, who have the guts to say No?
ESPN last fall ran a moving 14-minute story on a highly successful couple for whom everything was “perfect” until doctors told them their unborn daughter had Down syndrome. The mother, day after day, said No—but American parents with great flexibility and connectedness are aborting nine out of 10 Down syndrome babies. (To watch the video, go to YouTube and type in Heath White E60.)
Why should we love the humanities? The AAAS tells us, “We live in a nation that has been built … on a foundation of humanistic and social science scholarship, from our Founding rooted in Enlightenment philosophy to a future informed by the compilation and analysis of Big Data.”
Read more at http://www.worldmag.com/2013/08/the_real_heart_of_the_matter