Should We Stop Teaching Humanities
When I was in school and had to make a choice in class ten about which subject to pursue, the decision was easy. There were three reasons why I would never get to study Science. They were Physics, Chemistry and Biology. I wanted to study Humanities. My seniors all said the same thing, “There is no scope in Humanities” and while I did not know what that meant, it sounded scary. Besides they did not offer it as an option in my school. Reluctantly, I studied Commerce for my last two years in school. Reading about history, philosophy and literature was left to me.The situation is not very different today. Education, especially college is getting limited to becoming the few years one wastes before getting employed. So there is a great degree of emphasis in ensuring that graduation and post-graduation should prepare the student to become employable. There is nothing wrong in that aim, except that the employers increasingly do not find the freshly minted college hires employable. 47% graduates not employable in any sector of the knowledge economy according to a survey done by Aspiring Minds. The report is alarming:
“The employability of graduates varies from 2.59 per cent in functional roles such as accounting, to 15.88 per cent in sales related roles and 21.37 per cent for roles in the business process outsourcing (BPO/ITeS) sector. A significant proportion of graduates, nearly 47 per cent, were found not employable in any sector, given their insufficient English language and cognitive skills.”
The ability to articulate ideas in conversations and in writing hugely impacts a person’s success in the knowledge economy. Information is commoditized. We can always “Google” what we don’t know. The real skill then is about knowing how to ask the right question. To be able to contextualize that information and influence others is a vital element that is lost.The trend is not limited to India. It is a worldwide trend. Studying literature and philosophy is seen to be a detour. We live in a world that is more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). There are rarely any straight answers to questions. It is important that people learn to deal with shades of grey by sorting out conflicting issues and making better choices – skills that humanities offer. These are skills that are equally important to engineers and scientists as they are to business leaders. No wonder that MIT runs a “Charm School” for aspiring engineers to help them develop effective communications skills to foster success in interviewing and adjusting to corporate life.Recent findings show that reading literary fiction (not pop fiction) helps people build their empathy and emotional intelligence. It is the ability to manage one’s emotions and understand others emotions that makes people successful. Successful people understand not just what to say, but also understand when to say it and how to articulate the same idea that some else fumbled with. When is a person listening to your point of view and when are they mentally bracing themselves to demolish your view point? How to tell somebody something they’d rather not hear. Humanities teach us to deal with shades of grey (not just the Fifty Shades) that life offers every day. Human beings are complex creatures. The same scenario may get us to react differently depending on how we are feeling. Siblings brought up in the same environment turn out to be different from each other. Liberal Arts tell us how to make the world fit for humans.Join me on twitter @AbhijitBhaduri