Choose one of the following options for your Original Post.
Discussion Instructions
Option #1: Quotes
Required Reading #1
“On the one hand, they [the Humanities] are nonscientific, have little to do (at least directly) with business or economics, and they are not part of physical education or sports, either. On the other hand, though, they can deeply affect these more practical sides of life by informing how we think and express ourselves and how we anticipate and deal with change.”
Required Reading #2
Quote 1
”While there is a strongly idealistic streak among those who defend the Humanities as an essential part of a well-rounded education, on a practical level, their study also helps students develop and enhance many transferable skills for today’s workplace. Students can practice skills like communication, creativity, critical thinking, cultural responsiveness and awareness, and emotional intelligence by studying the Humanities.”
Quote 2
”Perhaps, then, it is necessary and even crucial to bother with the Humanities. It is important to know who we humans, in our creativity and presence, are as individuals and who others are within their cultures, societies, histories, and within the world, if we want to co-exist with others, explain why we have difficulties co-existing, or work towards mutual understandings. And, there are few other fields of study that can as comprehensively contextualize and provide insight into the complexities of being human as effectively as the Humanities can.”
Required Reading #3
Quote 1
”Rooted in critical thinking, both the humanities and the sciences strive for objectivity. Innovation in either discipline requires creativity chastened by analysis. Interpretations or models are always subject to further examination as new information or perspectives emerge.”
Quote 2
”While the humanities have scholarly standards, it is unclear to most people what the humanities’ social purpose is or how humanistic inquiry can be used to improve one’s life.”
Quote 3
”Scientists provide us with the empirical data crucial to making informed policy decisions, but the data tell us nothing about the implications of our decisions. For that we need artists and writers to bring those repercussions to life, scholars to remind us how others have addressed or failed to address similar problems, and philosophers to help us clarify our responsibilities.”
Quote 4
”In addition, scientific researchers are careful to limit their conclusions to what they can demonstrably extrapolate from data. It is not their responsibility to prepare us for the consequences of climate change. This is precisely where the humanities have an important contribution to make to the conversation. Artists and writers imagine and help us to understand or anticipate something we have never seen before, such as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Santa Ana fires of California, or the horrors of war. Our system of education needs to train students not only to value artistic vision, but also to cultivate their own imagination.”
Instructions: Choose one of the quotes above and do the following:
1. Place the quote at the top of your post.
2. Paraphrase the quote in your own words and mention briefly how it relates to the point of the entire reading.
3. Discuss how it relates to your relationship with the Humanities in your everyday life OR why you disagree with something in the quote.
4. Use at least one or two specific examples from your life or our culture to illustrate your points.
5. Use at least one additional quote from any of this week’s Required Readings in your discussion in your discussion.
6. Remember to use at least two quotes (one for step #1 and one for step #5) from the Required Learning Resources. Make sure to provide in-text citations for both quotes in MLA format.
7. Provide references for all sources in MLA format.
Option #2: The Field of the Humanities
Think about your perceptions of the Humanities before and after reading the Required Learning Resources for this week and do the following:
1. Discuss your initial thoughts about taking an Introduction to Humanities course when you first enrolled. What did you think this class would be about? What topics did you think would be covered? How did you feel about taking this class?
2. Reading ::
– [ ] https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/umuc/tus/humn/humn100/2242/week-1/humn-100-required-resource-set–1–what-are-the-humanities-.html
– [ ] humn-100-required-resource-set–2–why-bother-with-the-humanitie.html
– [ ] https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/umuc/tus/humn/humn100/2245/week-1/humn-100-required-resource-set–3–the-power-of-the-humanities.html?ou=1027759i
1. Explain which of the following three reasons for studying the Humanities presented in the Required Learning Resources most appeals to you and why? Provide a quote from the resources to support your choice and reasoning.
1. Self-development
2. Skills development
3. Seeing “Big Picture”
2. Choose another quote from any of the Required Learning Resources that provides you with new information about the Humanities and do the following:
1. Provide the quote and cite it.
2. Briefly explain why you may not have known this information before.
3. Conclude your post with a comment about how the Required Learning Resources for this week changed your understanding of the Humanities. If your perception did not change, comment on what you anticipate may be the most useful or interesting thing you will get out of this class.
4. Remember to use at least two quotes (one for part 2 and one for part 3) from any of the Required Learning Resources. Make sure to provide in-text citations for both quotes in MLA format.
5. Provide references for all sources in MLA format.
Option #3: Do your own research
Find an article in the UMGC library from a reliable resource that either argues in favor of including Humanities courses in a college education or that argues against its inclusion. You may use one of the articles found in the references at the end of any of the Required Learning Resources. Then do the following:
1. Briefly summarize the main point of the article and quote one main piece of support the author provides for their perspective.
2. Compare this author’s perspective to a perspective presented in any one of the three Required Learning Resources for this week. Make sure to include another quote from that resource.
3. Discuss which author’s perspective you find the most convincing and explain why.
4. Remember to use at least two quotes, one from the resource you found and another from any of the Required Learning Resources in your discussions. Make sure to provide in-text citations for both quotes in MLA format.
5. Provide references for all sources in MLA format.
