Why Languages, Literature, and Culture still Matter (Part III)
In my previous post, I highlighted the educational value of deliberately placing yourself in situations alien to your existing way of life. All of us live our lives according to the cultural norms and values we grew up with. These social structures are largely hidden and rarely written down, except in cases where an explicit definition of “etiquette” is warranted. Cinema, art, music, fashion, poetry, and literature all contribute to the way we frame experience. The largest contributor, though, is language. Language is key because it lies at the foundation of culture, subtly influencing what one does and does not attend to. Learning a foreign language is therefore one of the best ways to acquire a new blade, a new reference frame in the Swiss army knife that is the human mind.
Like technology, language too is a great disruptor. If you have ever lived in a foreign country, you quickly realize that your present way of thinking, acting, and speaking is woefully inadequate. In a foreign land, the learner faces invariant grammatical structures, strange words, and often perplexing behaviors. This same kind of disorientation typically happens in the wake of rapid technological change and innovation. Existing reference frames quickly grow stale, and new frames, new identities must be constructed on the fly. In both cases – whether one is responding to technological change or choosing to live in a different culture – the fundamental challenge is the same. How do I construct a new identity or edit an existing one?
The ability to adapt one’s identity to changing circumstances is key to human flourishing. And for that reason, creativity ought to be education’s primary aim. In the west, a liberal arts education was once thought to be the best way of achieving this goal. Over the course of the 20th century, the liberal arts experience was delivered in a variety of ways, the Great Books curriculum being but one example of the innovation happening during this time. Unfortunately, liberal arts advocates failed to answer a simple question: “How does knowledge of this sort support the identity construction process?” If, for example, my goal is to become an engineer, how does reading a work of great literature such as Homer’s Odyssey help me achieve that aim? The sciences, on the other hand, had a ready answer. You need to study x (whatever that topic was) because technical proficiency is all that matters in the real world. As is now evident, the humanities lost this argument.
However, the world is changing once again. AI, as we have already discussed, is going to devalue many technical skills. And in some cases, eliminate them altogether. In this kind of world, a Swiss army knife with many blades, a mind full of interesting reference frames is extremely useful. And the identity construction process – all those things we do to acquire a new reference frame – becomes critically important. This new reality offers those of us who love culture, literature, and languages a rare opportunity. Instead of packaging ideas in discrete containers, in discrete courses, why not develop a holistic learning experience that walks students through the identity creation process? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a medieval knight? A Renaissance poet? Well, we can teach you how to do that! Not only that, but these same skills are valuable. They can be put to use whenever you need to reinvent yourself, a necessity many of us will be facing as technology advances. In my next post, I will explore this idea more fully.