As the sole STEM person in a family of humanities majors (phys ed/history, political science, and comparative religions), I’ve always believed that the humanities have a lot to offer. If nothing else, every scientist and engineer will, at some point, need to write something. Knowing grammar is a generally a prerequisite for that (I hope). As a whole, though, engineers tend to be pretty focused on functionality, and that does lead to a very narrow view of what’s “useful.”

Sorry your family gives you grief! You can always come talk to my family. I think they’d probably understand you better than they understand me, anyway! I’m the weirdo in that bunch.

Thank you Dr. Nelson for the contact. Hopefully I can try to connect with her when I return back home.

Yes! I like how this post speaks to the need for an integrated understanding of the “liberal arts” — the STEM / Humanities dichotomy is really forced and problematic IMO.

Thanks for the post. I like the idea behind the post and the examples you gave. I think what’s most important is the artistic side, rather than swimming against the current. I do not see that they contradict or to have an artistic side, you have to swim against what others believe in. I agree that humanities are an essential part of everyone’s life.

I agree that memorization is important. You develop your brain when you use it. My point here is that education should not only focus on memorization.

Even as a GTA, I feel like this is one of the most important parts of my job. I grade and hold office hours and proctor tests, but I also try to be a role model and mentor for my students. It’s hard on days when I’m not feeling very patient and the answer to most of the questions I get is, “It’s in the syllabus.” But no matter how tired grumpy I’m feeling, the students should still feel like I care about them and that their learning actually matters to me. Because someday they’ll be the engineers or teachers, and hopefully they’ll treat other people that way too.

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“Critical pedagogy has given me more a new way to talk about my values, and perhaps a collaboration of effort to shred those force fields holding back improving our world.” You made my day – Thanks!

I’m with Sid and Aakash here (no surprise, I’m sure). Do you know this book? (it’s written by someone with a background in the humanities ;-): http://etiennebenson.com/wiredwilderness/
I think radio tracking has been around since the 50s. This is a very cool book and I think you would like it – a lot.

You don’t need cordon bleu to make an amazing impact. A well made flavorful mac and cheese is more than enough any day of the week. I think that if we do our job to the best of our abilities and we keep improving our recipe, we will be great!

On the one hand, I agree with the older gentlemen that our generation is, in many ways, less capable than the one before it. However, I also think that that comes in part from what we were taught by the generations before us. Over and over as a child, I heard, “You can be whatever you want to be as long as you work for it! If you just work hard, you’ll achieve your dreams!” Then, when so many people got degrees in fields that they loved with bad job prospects, they were told, “Why didn’t you choose something more practical? You need to find a real job!” If you tell people for years that they can be whatever they want, you don’t get to blame them when they believe you!

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