"Not for Profit, Why Democracy Needs the Humanities" is a short book by Martha Nussbaum. This is a critical view of the education system from elementary and secondary levels through high academic ranks. The worrisome pattern with emphasis on profit-generating has come at the cost of humanities and liberal arts. The signs are the decline of critical thinking toward authorities, compromised problem-solving skills over complex global matters, and a lack of sympathy for underprivileged and marginalized subpopulations.
Democracy needs competent democratic citizens and to reach this goal a balanced and comprehensive education is key. A balanced pedagogical method should include humanities in the curriculum to broaden the students' viewpoints and help them cultivate empathy. This will serve as a preemptive measure to solve the pathologic social insouciance. The recent waves of execrating diversity and various tribalist sycophants spreading hatred as the new real political wisdom, maybe a reflection of this oversight in the upbringing of the children. Whether these are wangs of a temporary philosophical spasm or a profound drawback in the evolution of education, is yet to be seen. Nevertheless, they require immediate attention.
The book explains the history of the endeavors to include humanities in the framework by philosophers and educational reformers from Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827) to John Dewey (1859-1952).
Pestolazzi believed in the incorporation of arts and actual emotional responses in tandem with a child's gradual emotional development. Highly influenced by Rousseau's Emile, he mainly focused on participatory creative activities.
Dewey's works in particular underline the importance of transferring living-oriented knowledge to students. He believed education is a regulatory process to oversee social norms and consciousness. Dewey believed in the involvement of the students to go deep and the proper educational method should provide information aligned with their prior life experiences.
In "Not for Profit", Nussbaum raises concern regarding the profit-oriented incentive in public and private schools. The resurgence of technology and the prediction of marketable occupations penetrated the social psyche and now parents are mostly supportive of this direction to secure their children's future. With a new economic and technological milieu looming at large, the need to renege on fundamental principles of comprehensive education is felt, more desperately than ever.
