Thank you Abdelrahman for your comment. We should try to do our best ?

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!