People are hungry for the humanities even if they don't use that term. Most of us are bewildered by what appears to be the decline and fragmentation of American civilization at the end of the twentieth century. Many of us feel the country seems to be coming apart. Most of us feel that the future is less promising than the past. The exclusive focus of the humanities is the cultural tradition of our past and what it has to say about our contemporary lives.
People attend humanities programs in large numbers.
They have a great deal on their minds and they are grateful for the clarifying force of the humanities and the scholars who have dedicated their lives to historical understanding. At humanities programs throughout the United States, average citizens express a desire to slow the pace of our discourse, to examine things in greater depth, to let history reveal its patterns and lessons, and to back away from the shallow communications of the electronic media. The humanities are our best lens on our past and on the culture we share as a people. The old academic joke is that education is wasted on the young. In a sense this has never been more true.