There must come a time in every young adult’s life when he or she asks: What is the purpose of my education, and what will I do with the things that I’ve learned?
In universities and western cultures, cold logic triumphs over messy emotions, even though they are delicate nuances of what it means to be human. This is perhaps why another columnist, Jake Adler, bemoaned the outdated learning model of the academic paper a few weeks ago.
Apparently, it would seem that finding the Sistine Chapel beautiful is not enough. Apparently, the value lies in understanding why and being able to articulate why it is beautiful. The value is in learning how to be very removed from the emotions that make one love the Sistine Chapel in the first place.
This is an issue in higher education. Students are trained to privilege thinking — being logical — about what they are learning before they are taught to love whatever it is they are learning. I understand how important it is to prove that you are learning, because it is only through empirical evidence that funding for universities is allocated. But as a result, there is little emphasis on creativity, playtime or how to be expressive in ways that don’t involve a test or a 12-page research paper.
The first and final contact students have with most things they learn in college is with their minds, and not their hearts. Thus, students have a hard time integrating highly intellectual but still approachable ideas into their everyday lives.
I won’t always be able to recount the specifics of Herbert Marcuse’s “Eros and Civilization," but I think I will always remember how it made me feel. And it is those feelings that will inspire me to come back to it time and time again — for pleasure and of my own volition.
"Pathos" has become a dirty word because it is associated with marketing and the manipulation of peoples’ feelings to win arguments. But teaching and learning through pathos — the Greek root from which “empathy” and “sympathy” are derived — shouldn’t be dismissed as an inferior mode of learning.
Call me a hopeless idealist, but I think it’s possible for educators and students to approach learning in a more holistic way — a way that makes us all humans trying to make the most of this learning experience.
All of a sudden, I can imagine the playing field being leveled. Classmates become peers and not competitors, and the figure leading the classroom is not a judge of intellect but a compassionate guide.
I’ve tried all semester long to wax poetic about the inherent goodness of thinking. But I feel like I’ve neglected to say something that is beginning to feel a little bit like a dirty secret to me: Education and the application of critical thinking skills are only very good at providing a certain kind of satisfaction. And as it turns out, it won’t always feel like enough if one is searching to lead a life that is fulfilling.
In one way or another, the humanities are important because they can put us in direct contact with what it means to be human — the emotions, the pains and the joys.
Let’s not forget that. Let’s make sure that doesn’t go away.
Reach the columnist at ctruong1@asu.edu or follow her at @ce_truong
