You can read and enjoy Shakespeare and Dante on your own. I’m not saying you should need humanities credentials for doing STEM, just an appreciation so you would know there’s more to life.
And that would also help progress STEM fields and advance them more virtuously. This is important.
Having an education in the liberal arts gives you more tools to appreciate, understand, and discuss our shared heritage, but it's also possible (though harder) to develop those tools on your own.
Also, you don't need to be skilled in analysis of the classics to be conversant in them on a more casual level. Both are good.
Exactly. I don’t expect everyone to read the Odyssey in homeric greek. However, I’d like most people to know who Odysseus is.
Kids should know who he is! It's a super engaging story for little kids—heroes, monsters, shipwreck, the underworld, and revenge.
My brothers and I used to listen to kid-friendly adaptations of the Iliad and Odyssey as audiobooks on long car rides.
I think it comes down to education cultivating an understanding of "What are you trying to change? And why was it there in the first place?" and endless other narratives, each of which can be found through a tailored education system that allows its students to explore ideas on their own, while thematically guided by educators.
Yes! STEM doesn't answer the "why" questions; only the liberal arts can do that.
