Erwin Krackow
Dr. Rodriguez.
March 26, 2014
In college, students should study the humanities because they provide important benefits for their lives such as history background, critical thinking, and understanding of human emotions. In addition, when students study the humanities they will obtain a more complete education that is going to help them be successful not just in their jobs; but in their own lives too. History gives students the chance to know where things come from, how people behave in the past, and how everything was set up thousands of years ago. A concept that is still common in our era is democracy. But where is it come from? Well, we have to go back and read Thucydides and his work, the History of the Peloponnesian War, which is a great source to start. During the Peloponnesian War, which was between Athens and Sparta, Athens adopted a new and unique system of govern which was called democracy. This system consisted on giving the opportunity to the society to speak free and take a part in political decisions; unfortunately the called “democracy” didn’t apply to all citizens because the slaves, women, and people without belongings were not taking in account at the time to make a decision. Now, after students have a background on this specific topic; they are able to understand and discuss if this system is still fair or unfair based on a justify opinion. Nowadays, it is really important to be able to support a claim with specific reasons; and history is a powerful tool that can provide this ability for students in their college time.
As Veryln Klinkenborg states in her article “The decline and fall of the English major”, humanities bring us a particular gift, which is clear thinking. Philosophy, literature, art, history, and religion are not simple fields to understand; in fact, when students study those topics they are able to develop a vital skill which is best known as critical thinking. Shakespeare with his sonnets is a great example to support how hard is to get a piece of his work without developing a process of critical thinking. Shakespeare sonnets were written during the renaissance time, approximately six hundred years ago, and they are still a valuable work for our generation. What makes them so good, but so hard to understand? The answer is not quite simple, for people to be able to understand him they have to develop a certain level of critical thinking which is going to allow them to comprehend and figure out what is inside in each of his pieces of work. After students are able to understand his point and get a piece of value of his sonnets with continuity; the next step will be to put in practice their own analysis method which is going to help them to be successful in different situations such as decision-making, job responsibilities, and personal life. Students often don’t see the importance of understanding how people act or behave based on their emotions; fortunately the humanities bring them this exclusive benefit. In David Brooks article “ History for Dollars” , we find the Big