Premier Mike Harris justified his snub of the liberal arts and humanities on economic grounds. We seem to be graduating more people who are great thinkers, but they know nothing about math or science or engineering or the skill sets that are needed. OWEN EGAN Professor Michael Bisson Department of Anthropology Prehistory shows that the development of language and the ability to use symbols made the explosion in technology over the past 40,000 years possible. Understanding the physical world is necessary for our technological adaptation, but understanding the cultural world is no less important.
Culture determines the uses of technology and gives richness to every aspect of our lives.
Because we learn about culture in the arts, humanities and social sciences, it is those disciplines which are crucial to both understanding our past and shaping our future. Harris appears to yearn for the sort of boring, sterile technocracy that characterized Stalinist Russia. The mission of higher education is to expand society's horizons by engaging its members in substantial intellectual and scholarly activity. The core areas of culture such as the arts, history, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, physics, etc., should therefore figure prominently in its curriculum. Immediate prioritization towards increasing shortages of qualified manpower in sciences and information technologies makes sense.