Larisa Lazdins
5/18/2010
When you signed up for this course, what did you imagine that you would be studying? Were you interested in humanities before you took this course? Now that you have had a chance for a course overview, what do you think? Why do you think Humanities courses are required?
Before the Western Humanities class began, I prepared myself to step back into the past, with an office filled with musty, well-worn books and aged reproductions of great works of art... Not really.. But that is what most would have come to their minds at first, I'm certain. I imagined I would be studying many aspects of the arts – visual (painting, sculptures, photography, architecture), performing (music, theater, dance), and literary (poetry). And that there would also be plenty of philosophy and different forms of religion included.
Humanities course will give me all the benefits of a history course, but rather than focusing on the battles, dates, and names, humanities will give me a sense of how it all fits together.
This course will give the chance to raise questions about mysteries we've wondered about, sometimes for a long time. It's a chance to hear how others respond to the same questions we answer but with very different ways of answering them. Often we learn as much from each other as from our texts or teachers, and with that I'm looking forward to getting deep into this course!
Humanities courses are required in order to broaden the students understanding of themselves and their interaction with the world, providing a high standard for understanding of their cultural and intellectual heritage while giving them the tools to use that knowledge as lifelong learners. It will allow us to explore how individuals and groups understand their existence, their place within their cultures and their responsibility to others and the physical world. With that, we, the students, learn how to express this understanding.
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