"The Endless Appetite": Honors Education and the Spirit of the Humanities

Most thought-provoking for our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking. --Martin Heidegger In a world that no longer privileges thinking, we might need to consider what we are asking of our students-and why-when we ask them to think. What follows is a manifesto of how honors education can serve as a resistant force against the increasing encroachment of a wholly utilitarian concept of education. With the costs of higher education on the rise, the call to justify getting a college degree has been indissolubly linked to the ability to obtain a job once the student graduates. What has been lost along the way is the justification of getting an education for the sake of enriching one's life and one's community, a model of education that is increasingly available only to the privileged. The humanities have taken the brunt of criticism aimed at such a justification, but the jobs-based model that so preoccupies social discourse is a misguided objective that will eventually turn our work force into semiliterate specialists whose main task is to keep the economy moving. In his 1854 novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens presents his readers with the figure of Mr. Gradgrind, a man interested in nothing but the facts. "Now what I want is, Facts. Teach these little boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else" (7). Those of us who have read Hard Times know that Gradgrind's educational philosophy and practices have disastrous results for his children, Louisa and Tom, and surely we can assume that contemporary thinking about education, especially with emphasis on the STEM initiative, is a twenty-first-century echo of Gradgrind's declaration. Mr. Gradgrind is not completely wrong; we need specialists who will be able to contribute to the work force and thus grow our economy For a democracy to thrive, though, we must invest in a humanities-infused education that will give students a well-rounded, critical education, enabling them to become better, more productive citizens, and this is where honors education can play a vital role. Honors colleges and programs across the country can pivot the discussion of educational value toward a more encompassing and enriching model by standing behind and reaffirming its core values, values that are firmly staked in interdisciplinary, critical, and reflective thinking practices. One need only attend any of the regional conferences in honors to see our students demonstrate these practices Honors educators are in the position to move entire institutions in directions that individual departments and institutes cannot Honors can reframe questions about the humanities through pedagogical theory and practices. Simply reframing the questions is not enough, though; we must push against the increasing tide of an educational system based on a business model Martha Nussbaum's recent book Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities is a compelling indictment of the thinking that seeks to privilege a purely techno-scientific, skills-based curriculum at the cost of the humanities. Nussbaum does not single out the education system of the United States but argues that the current crisis felt by the humanities is global: Thirsty for national profit, nations, and their systems of education, are heedlessly discarding skills that are needed to keep democracies alive. If this trend continues, nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticize tradition, and understand the significance of another person's sufferings and achievements. (2) Nussbaum's analysis is not hyperbolic hysteria but a no-holds-barred, honest analysis of where we are heading in higher education. The current educational climate does not privilege thinking but instead seeks to populate a workforce with highly skilled and obedient men and women Nussbaum goes on to add, "The future of the world's democracies hangs in the balance" (2). …