People want to understand other people so they can peacefully coexist in a global society of radically different individuals. In the end, the true goal is contentment, satisfaction, happiness. The vehicle to reaching that goal is the development of high level thinking, of reason, and of logic. In order to teach students to think, we must provide something for them to think about. This is where individual academic disciplines literature, physics, calculus, etc. enter the picture.
Every mind works slightly differently.
Every person possesses aptitudes for different types of material. The trick for teachers is to find that specific realm of academia that will prompt each individual student to want to think. For me, that subject was language, most specifically the reading and discussion of literature. My parents, both educators, introduced me to books even before I entered school, and now I go through withdrawal if I am deprived of a printed companion. Using novels and stories as my vessel, I have sailed to new lands and explored uncharted realms.