I am sometimes scared of or puzzled by the word “humanities.” I know I often avoid using the word because I think many of us have different definitions for it – or maybe no definition at all! Personally, I am tired of skirting the word and would like to think through possibilities of using the concept of the “humanities” more easily, and with more confidence. And, of course promoting, experiencing and enjoying the discipline as well.
Technically, I think we should refer to the “arts and humanities,” which helps us remember that the humanities include more than art, theater and music. We need to remember that humanities is a discipline of study, something we may forget when we think casually of the term. Students can study the humanities in grade school as well as major in the field in college and graduate school; and when they do, they study human culture and how we process the human experience. They study history and its effects on us or on those at the time it was happening. They study philosophy, logic and reason, and they learn to think critically and ethically.
Chloe, my 12-year-old granddaughter, wrote of her humanities class: “As our society progresses, many things are lost, things that make us and the world we live in who and what we are. I think that humanities should be taught from no specific point of view but from an open perspective. I believe our teachers should not tell us what to feel or think about something but should instead lay out the facts as clearly as possible. There are so many sides to every story that no one person’s view can be taken as the truth.” I so wish I’d had Chloe’s insight when I was in seventh grade.
Most of us recognize that we are privileged (i.e., lucky) to be surrounded by a plethora of the arts component of the humanities. In Durango, we have galleries, theater, photography, film, music and living history regularly available to all of us. We also have access to opera, films and plays from New York and London, and we now have a Colorado Humanities’ Chautauqua program in our community. We have a mass of book clubs and discussions and an avenue to create more of these with Fort Lewis College’s Common Reading and the Durango Community Read Experiences. Our Durango City Council affirmed our community’s commitment to the importance of the humanities by proclaiming October to be Durango Community Reading Month. How many city councils have done this? And, in the future, we have the possibility of a new arts and science venue. No urging is needed in our community to foster the richness of the arts and humanities!
Two things I think have to be in the front of our brains while thinking of the arts and humanities, however.
All of our students need to share the same advantages. All of our children need to be familiar with the discipline or study called arts and humanities. We have to immerse our young children, all of them, in the arts and humanities from grade school through senior high. As author, Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar Eric Greitens said of very poor children: “We’ve got to teach our students art – they need to realize that beauty exists, so they have something to hope for.” Our students are behind the game if they attend college without knowledge of their cultural heritage or the ability to think through consequences and contingencies. They won’t be in contention for jobs, and their lives could be vacant and useless without beauty, whatever its form. And our citizenry will be dull and out of step with the international world of business and culture without models of human behavior and thought.
The second part of this, which is new to me and exciting to think about, is an idea expressed by the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, William Adams. He suggests we address the concept of the humanities from an activist’s point of view. This is an opportunity to see that “human” really does play a huge role in “the (human)ities.” He suggests the “humanities” is more than just an emotive and enriching experience, but it can be viewed as a call to arms for social change. This is another way to define the humanities and to practice its intent. Not to diminish the emotional, joyous, wonderful sensory experiences the humanities provide us, and the fact that we often need a diversion from the news, but there is much more to the concept.
This way of looking at the humanities – this call to arms – means we cannot only absorb, but we can also create, we can be lively and we can cause change. We can be activists.
Our Durango and outlying community is a shining example of how the tentacles of the humanities reach out to touch us. We are loaded with opportunities to let the humanities embrace us. But, we can reach back as well – we can gain new insights, live with passion for justice and, with eagerness, learn from the glories of the discipline.
So, let’s not avoid the term or the concept of the (human)ities. Let’s practice saying it, as well as listening, thinking and playing it – and let’s do it.
Bridget Irish is a member of the board of directors of Colorado Humanities and a retired assistant dean of Fort Lewis College’s School of Arts and Humanities. Reach her at irish_b@fortlewis.edu.
