Learning Area Advisor - Humanities

Why Humanities Matter in 2021

Our world is enriched when coders and marketers dazzle us with smartphones and tablets, but, by themselves, they are just slabs.  It is the music, essays, provocations and entertainment that they access - spawned by the Humanities - that animate them - and us.

 Nicholas Kristof (novelist, journalist, political commentator)

It is close to the time of the year when Year 10 students will be making subject selection decisions for senior study.  With so many competing subjects from which to choose, and areas in which to specialise, it becomes a challenge for students to balance what they love and what they are good at with what they think they ought to do.  As Head of Humanities here at Mt A, my wish would be that every student includes a Humanities subject in their selection to ensure a broad and balanced senior course.

The Humanities are about what it is to be human.  They are subjects that seek to interpret and appreciate the human experience, from individuals to whole cultures and civilisations, engaging in the discovery, preservation, and communication of the Past and the Present record to gain a deeper understanding of the contemporary world.  The discipline of Humanities gives us the tools to predict and propose the future.

Humanities students build skills in writing and critical reading.  The Humanities encourage us to think creatively.  They teach us to reason about being human and to ask questions about our world.  The Humanities develop informed and critical citizens.

Here are some common responses from teachers and students why Humanities matter:

1. Humanities help us understand others through their languages, histories, and cultures.
2. They foster social justice and equality.
3. They reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual. and intellectual sense of the world.
4. The Humanities teach empathy.
5. They teach us to deal critically and logically with subjective, complex, imperfect information.
6. Humanities teach us to weigh evidence skeptically, and consider more than one side of every question.
7. Humanities students build skills in writing and critical reading.
8. The Humanities encourage us to think creatively.  They teach us to reason about being human and to ask questions about our world.
9. The Humanities develop informed and critical citizens.

Above are nine really good reasons to choose a Humanities subject; can you think of a tenth??? 

If you were a Humanities student, you could!!

Amanda Bopf