Question 8
ComprehensionJAMB 1991 Passage II: Why study the humanities
The preparation which a study of the humanities can provide, stems from three observations about education in our world of accelerating social and technological change. First, with the rate of change, we cannot hope to train our students for specific technologies. That kind of vocational education is obsolescent. By the time the students graduate, the technologies will have moved on. If our education consists of narrow training, we will not be prepared to change. Second, and paradoxically, what our students desire from their education is preparation for specific careers – business, engineering, medicine, computer programming and the like, but we will not be able to train them for a life-long career. Their confronting the depressed job market gives our students a certain anxiety, but the solution they seek in vocational training is not sufficient. Third, we sense in our students a narrowing materialism, with the good life defined in terms of material comforts. Education, then means learning to do a job which will make money. I see in this definition a limiting sense of what education and thus life offer, a definition which excludes joy and meaning.
Our approach to the study of the humanities responds to these three related problems. In our changing, yet narrowing world, the teaching of the humanities finds one powerful justification – it teaches students how to think.
Our approach to the study of the humanities responds to these three related problems. In our changing, yet narrowing world, the teaching of the humanities finds one powerful justification – it teaches students how to think.
'We sense in our students a narrowing materialism' means that our students' concept of education is one that
- A.prepares them for money, joy and meaning
- B.makes them ready to confront the depressed job market
- C.only prepares them to acquire material comforts
- D.trains them for life-long career
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: C (only prepares them to acquire material comforts)
Explanation
The writer says students see the good life only in terms of material comforts, so education to them is just a way to get money.