Humanistic careers are not highly valued by society
I have always understood in this way. Humanities comes from "human" and, therefore, it is the discipline that observes us, analyze and study us and seeks to understand us.
Thus, if Humanities are seeking to understand us and the way how we work and behave, and they try to explain it to us, we must define the "Humanities" as the "user manual" of ourselves.
Why an User Manual about ourselves?
Why do some situations annoy me? Why do things work as they do? Why am I treated in this way by others? How should I react in consequence?
These are some questions that we would like to answer to, and we don't usually have them. A good user manual about ourselves (a good humanistic knowledge) must help us to find out these kind of answers and act properly according to them.
And what do it happen if we don't have such a manual? The same as it happens when the TV is not working properly, the image goes and comes or there are pixels in the screen, and why don't know what's wrong with it. We feel angry and desperate and we knock the TV several times to see if the image improves.
Humanities as the main topic in our education
It is not normal buying a washing machine without its user manual. Living without a user manual about ourselves mustn't be considered normal too.
We need an education that mainly provides us with such a manual and teach us how to use it. We need an education with a humanistic base.
The speecher and writer Jeremy Rifkin stated in an interview:
"I think that it is apropiated that the students went to the university to study Humanities, because they offer a current portrait of the human race. Afterwards, in the postgraduate degree, they can study an specific vocation, like Business Management, Law or Chemistry. If they start studying their vocation, they won't get any idea about the interconnected world that is emerging"
First the User Manual, and then a profession.
