Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs essays

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs essays On March 21, 1998, I attended a ballet of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Etherredge Center. The ballet began at 7:30p.m. and lasted almost two hours, but the time went by so quickly because the dancers were so captivating in their performance. Two of the performers were students at the University of South Carolina in Aiken, but most of the other girls were still in high school. The first dance of the evening was performed to a song composed by Prokofiev. The piece lasted four movements as the dancers changed back and forth between each movement. During the first movement of the song, all of the dancers came on the stage at one time to perform. The music was fast and in the major key. The woodwinds were playing and produced a light, airy sound. In the next movement only two dancers remained on the stage. The music became very soft and smooth flowing. The third movement was medium loud as the strings played, and then the piece became slow using staccato notes on the woodwinds. The final movement was fast as the violins were heard playing a loud playful sound with fast repetition. All of the dancers returned onto the stage for the ending as the piece came to a close. The second dance was done to a piece composed by Morsheba. The entire song was performed using only drums. There were soft echoes of voices heard in the distance as the dancers formed a circle. They were dressed in black as the danced on a slightly lit stage. They seemed to be performing a ceremonial or ritual dance like the Indians used to appease their gods. The piece ended with the fast, loud beating of the drums as the dancers fell to the floor. After the first two songs were finished, the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began. The narrator spoke first and told about the birth of Snow White and what her wicked stepmother was planning to do to her. The evil Queen was the first one on stage. She danc...

Empowerment is an unrealistic concept. Discuss Essay

Empowerment is an unrealistic concept. Discuss - Essay Example The following paper critically discusses the disadvantages and advantages of empowerment by applying appropriate theories and practices of organisational motivation. Empowerment has grown popular amongst various management teams across the world (Robbins et al., 2011, p. 573). This widespread acknowledgement of its positive impacts on organisational output led to the development of a new management style. However, it is worth noting that empowerment is more than delegation as others see empowerment as an opportunity to reduce their workload. Employee empowerment is a common and often effective management strategy (On Safe Lines Consultancy, n.d., p. 6). Employee management gives employees a sense of autonomy and responsibility for decisions they make. Independence and responsibility should increase organizational responsiveness to issues as well as increase productivity. Employee empowerment also creates greater commitment towards the company’s goals since employees can take responsibility and make decisions on behalf of management. However, various factors an organisation can consider during empowerment include coordination throughout the organisation (On Safe Lines Consultancy, n.d., p. 4). Coordination largely calls for decentralized decisions and removal of approval from top management. The relationship between the employee and manager may become tenser as the boundaries of authority can be blurred at times. Trust is essential for empowerment to occur in an organisation (On Safe Lines Consultancy, n.d., p. 2). Management must develop a positive and productive environment that encourages employees to use their common sense and individual judgements. As a result, management strengthens the bond between managers and employees and makes the organisation more productive (Robbins et al., 2011, p. 573). In the process, a strengthened manager-employee bond results in an increase in earnings growth due to employee input. It is

Self esteem issues that arise for adults who have returned to edcation Essay

Self esteem issues that arise for adults who have returned to edcation - Essay Example Adult education is a serious effort made by government and voluntary agencies to provide a platform for the adults to improve their educational qualifications. It provides them a wide option of educational curricula, designed to utilise their increased knowledge and enhanced skills so that they can better rehabilitate in their social environment and improve their job prospects. Adult education also facilitates and provides a challenging atmosphere for the people who wish to diversify and follow a career in new areas. It therefore becomes all the more important that adults who wish to further their educational qualifications, are made to feel comfortable in an academically challenged atmosphere, without any embarrassment or other such psychological impediments. We would, thus, be taking the role of self esteem of the adults, who wish to pursue education in a changed atmosphere. It is seen that adults who are intending to either resume their education or the one who embark on adult literacy for advancing their careers, are faced with multitude of psychological problems which might hinder with their fair intentions and goals. Issues of self esteem are major impediments for a smooth adult education course because adults who convince themselves for the course are still sensitive to public comments and outlooks which may frown upon or look down on their endeavours as mere whims and wastage of good money on a lost cause. The main aim and objectives of the study are to find ways and means of providing people with incentives so that adults, who have had to leave their education for one or the other reasons, are able to resume their education with fresh zeal and motivation with higher self esteem. It is equally important that due consideration be given to their status as adults who have other priorities, so that they are not forced to compromise with their self esteem and ego, and as such, it is imperative to

To what extent do governments shape the global oil economy In your Essay

To what extent do governments shape the global oil economy In your analysis, consider the role of nature, industrial structure and war - Essay Example Constant discovery of new oil fields is necessary to avoid depletion of current reserves; however this is challenging from both economic and business perspectives. For instance, in Canada the oil reserves are difficult to correctly measure because of technological difficulties leading to high cost involvement. On the other hand, oil reserves in Alberta which are now considered second largest oil reservoir were considered as non-economical to develop in past decades (Inkpen, 2012, p.2). One of the most important aspects of oil industry is that rich and poor nations alike are consumers of oil. However, since oil is location-specific therefore only a specific number of nations are major oil producers of the world. Over the last decades, the developed nations have become leading importers of oil which has resulted in severe geographical and political issues. Oil industry is one sector which has experienced large scale government interventions and regulations ranging from taxation to cont rol over production. OPEC â€Å"represents government intervention on a global scale† (Inkpen, 2012, p.4). For five years Saudi Arabia which is OPEC’s largest producer country controlled price by reducing production during phases of excessive supply and increased production during phases of low supply. It could afford because of low population and excessive production. Thus Saudi Arabia along with other OPEC members strived to maximize their oil revenues in the short run (Spero & Hart, 2009, pp.346-347). OPEC’s goal is to sustain the bargaining power on oil producing countries by controlling price. The idea is to ensure smooth distribution of oil to consumers, producers getting their regular profits and investors earning fair returns. However, OPEC’s capacity to fulfill its mission is controversial since increasing oil prices in the 1980s resulted in storing up of oil by producing countries and new exploration

Personal Experience: A Caring Occurrence

Personal Experience: A Caring Occurrence The purpose of this reflective paper is to reflect on a personal experience in which you cared for someone. Using Johns model (Johns 2006), the reflection will explore how the personal experience reflected a caring occurrence. Reflection is the appearance of experiential knowledge and as nursing students; we should begin to use reflection as our experience in the nursing field accumulates. It is both justified and recommended that Carpers work be incorporated into reflective practice since it was a key figure in widening knowledge in nursing (Heath, 1998). Reflective practice incorporates Carpers (1978) ways of knowing personal, ethical, aesthetical and empirical knowing into an individuals reflection. Reflection is a personal understanding of self and in the development of self, reflecting on relationships and interactions between two or more people. As a nurse, the relationship is between the nurse and the client, and sometimes involves the clients family as well. The experience in which I cared for someone occurred in the fall of 2009. As part of my Gr. 12 Ethics and Morals Religion Class, it was required that for an eight week period, we spent a period of our time, once a week at a retirement home with our assigned adoptive grandparent. The purpose of this assignment was to spend time with an older adult, engage in communication, participation, and enjoy the time spent with the older generation and learn from them. So once a week, I made my way to the retirement home and spent an hour and a half with my adoptive grandparent Blanche. I planned ahead of time activities that she might like to take part in such as a puzzle, a walk, a craft, or baking. Once I got there, I would ask her what she would like to do and we would go from there. Each time I went there, she had a different story to tell me; her life as a young farm girl, her teenage years, and the love of her life, her career as a teacher, her family and journeys she had been on. Each st ory had its own personal meaning to her and I sat there attentively and listened, asked probing questions and comments. As her adopted grandchild, it was my duty to entertain her, keep her spirits up and encourage her. The one week when I went there, she had physiotherapy so I could not spend much time with her on a personal level, but more of a team of caring individuals to support her, and encourage her through her therapy. Although this situation does not exactly relate to a medical need for caring for someone, I still managed to care for an individual on a personal, face-to-face encounter. This experience also helped me to learn how important the elderly patients are. When I experienced this caring situation, I was feeling worried and nervous at first. I was unsure what to expect prior to meeting my adoptive grandparent. I was worried about the fact that my grandparent might not have liked me, or would be extremely quiet and held back. Since this was one of the first times I would be put in an experience like this, I just did not know what to expect. After the first two weeks, I became more comfortable in my surroundings and each week I would then look forward to my visits with Blanche. After I became comfortable, I was happy and opened up more towards Blanche. The purpose of this experience achieved a new found friendship with a member of the older generation. It gave me the opportunity to care for an individual at the retirement home who did not have many visitors, so I became her weekly visitor and spent quality time with her and card for her in a special way. This experience helped me achieve a better respect for the elderly and enhanced my ab ility to relate to them on a personal level. Knowledge that may have informed me would be the calling for a special person who cares for the spirituality of others. Nursing is a caring profession that is honoured as the spiritual, spirit-filled practice (Vance, 2003). A caring occasion becomes transpersonal when nurse and client together with their unique life histories and perception become a focal point, in which the moment is greater than the occasion itself (Watson, 2008). The experience shared between the two becomes a deeper pattern in life. The caring moment is being in the moment. Fully present, open to other people, compassion and connection. Reflection of practice allows the nurse to observe decisions made and bring to the open the knowledge that has formed from practicing skills. Nursing students can enhance multiple ways of knowing and their understanding of caring through the process of reflecting on caring encounters (Schaefer, 2002). The foundation of nurse care is the wisdom in knowing and understanding that les sons are learned by one another to become more human in learning the identity of ourselves with others. When I cared for Blanche on a weekly basis, I acted for the best with the values that I had at the time. Although I had not dealt with many elderly patients prior to this experience, I still knew the values I had and gave Blanche my utmost respect. I treated her with the same respect that I would have liked to be treated if the positions were opposite. Caring as a nurse means the innermost of nursing, without prejudice and aims at prioritizing the patients suffering and needs (Gustafsson et al., 2007). Nursing care is the process aimed at responding to patients needs without reasoning. Quality care is the element to caring. When a nurse is caring for someone, it is best that they are not bias towards the patient, nurses should treat all patients equally, meaning not giving certain patients more attention, unless their critical situation demands it of them. This situation connects with a previous experience in which I worked at a retirement home for a few weeks in the summer. This position mainly had me as house cleaning but in the evening when everything was done, it allowed me to interact with the residents. I talked to them, played games and took them for a stroll outside. The experience in which I cared for Blanche was more connected and personal in terms of the one-on-one time I was able to spend with her. The idea of reflection is caring science learning, learning and developing a personal knowledge of caring as an art (Gustafsson et al., 2007). This helps to establish the substance and quality of caring in regards to the patient. Factors that constrain my responding in new ways is my personal confidence level, with a variation of the knowledge of my experience, which I will hope to gain from working side-by-side with experience nurse practitioners. This also relates to my level of involvement, if I increase the questions I ask if I am in doubt, I will gain more knowledge of the situation. This will also offer clarification and a deeper level of thought in regards to the situation. When I was caring for Blanche, at first I was not very confident and a little hesitant to introducing myself to a complete stranger and spending time with her once a week. After participating in this learning of a life lesson, I gained so much from it. I have more confidence in my ability to communicate with strangers; I have stepped outside the box I built up around myself and have become a more confident, strong, communicative leader. Although I may still be a little hesitant about situations, that is normal. A fear of the unknown or hesitation is another constraint to responding in new ways. This unknowing is an awareness that as a nurse does not and cannot know or understand the client when they first meet (Heath, 1998). Knowing the clients information or background prior to meeting with the patient will help make the situation a little more comfortable. Mixed groups may possibly enhance the development of skills of reflection (Heath, 1998). Working together as a team will help form and ensure actions are for the best. As a team, all sides are valued and reflection is more in-depth and has different vantage points. As a student nurse, insights that I have gained from this reflection is that my experience will grow and I can begin to understand the details of what experienced nurses know. It may only be a small portion, but I can build an understanding for the knowledge expert nurses have and benefit from it. A powerful insight is recognizing the unknown, and as a nurse, I can learn to remain alert to the clients individual viewpoint of the situation. This can best be done by listening to the client and establishing a truthful, open, working relationship, without the state of unknowing. Nurses need to be aware of the lack of empirical knowledge (Heath, 1998). This will promote an awareness to learn, research and increase practical skills. Guided reflection is a journey of self-inquiry and transformation (Johns, 2006). Reflection helps one realize their ability to care, learn and gain experience on past situations, learn from mistakes so they do not happen again. Reflection is awakening of the se lf (Johns, 2006). Did I act or be the best I could be with Blanche? I personally feel that I did the best job I could with the knowledge I had at the time. After learning about nurse- client therapeutic communication, I feel that maybe now, if I were to go back and relive the experience, I would be have a better relationship with her and gain more knowledge and become an even better adopted grandchild. I would ensure that the relationship would be more purposeful and contain a position of trust and a unique responsibility to maintain a therapeutic relationship. What would I have done differently if I was able to relive this experience to improve and make the most of this experience for both myself and Blanche? If I were to relive this experience, I would change the direction of advancing the best outcome and interest for Blanche. I would give her more attention, make more time in my schedule to spend time with her and take pleasure in the time spent together. Just because I may understand something, d oes not mean that I could change the outcome, it just means I am on my way to changing and becoming a more determined nurse. Understanding something is the first step towards changing. As John (2006) states, usually negative feelings such as anger, guilt, frustration and sadness draw our attention to the experience. These negative feelings draw specific attention because they seem disturbed and usual taken-for-granted awareness for feelings. In my situation while I was caring for my adopted grandparent, this was not the case. If anything, it was the opposite. The feelings that drew my attention to this caring situation were happiness, thoughtfulness, joy, and understanding. The smile I saw every time I walked into Blanches room and glow in her eyes every time she saw us. Our weekly visits to her brightened her days and made her feel young again. I appreciated being with her, giving her my time, my attention and my skill as a person of todays generation. It takes practice first and then reflection (Johns, 2006). It is best to practice the skills needed first, make sure they are understood and demonstrated them properly and then reflect on the occasion and what went right and what went wrong and improve the situation for the next time.

A Critical Interpretation of Hans Kung?s Historical Analysis of the Dev

A Critical Interpretation of Hans Kung’s Historical Analysis of the Development of the Hierarchical Church   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The beginnings of the Christian church are shrouded in mystery. With the lack of evidence about that time in history, it is hard to draw conclusions of any type. However, the historical analyst, Hans Kung, has written a book to shed some light on the subject. In this book, Kung discusses his opinion on the development of the early church, and its hierarchical structure. In the following paper, I will address two of the chapters of Kung’s book, â€Å"The Beginnings of the Early Church† and â€Å"The Early Catholic Church†. The points that I will focus on are: The makeup and persecution of the early church community and why it was that way, and how, according to Kung, the founders of Catholicism went against how Jesus wanted the church to be governed by establishing a hierarchy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Christian church, according to Kung, began at Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit came to the apostles and told them to go out and preach the teachings of Jesus it meant that the apostles could claim an identity separate from Judaism. The majority of the first Christians were Jews from Jerusalem that believed that Jesus was the Messiah promised to the Jews in the Hebrew Testament and they believed in the resurrection. â€Å"The earliest Christian community did not want in any way to part company with the Jewish community or nation, but to remain integrated into Judaism.†(P. 13). The differences in the beliefs of the Jews and the Jewish-Christians naturally created a separation in the two groups. When the Christian disciples started going out and preaching their faith to people, the Roman Empire saw them as a threat to their power and decided that Christianity would have to be stopped. Because Christianity and Judaism were one, the two most effective ways to persecute the Christians was to execute their leaders, and to destroy the Jewish places of worship. After the Romans burned the Temple of Jerusalem for the second time, a council of Pharisees decided that the Christians were to be excommunicated from the Jewish temple.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If not for the early connection to the Jewish faith, the Christian religion would never have established as a major religion. The idea of having one God, called monotheism, was too radi... ... what they thought, there would be no extravagance in the lives of the church officials. Likewise, if the church truly believed in what Jesus taught, they would not be shunning the participation of women in the church; rather, they would be embracing all the people that truly wished to participate in the vocation of a priest or any position in the church for that matter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, the early Christian church had its problems in who was accepted into the new faith and why they were persecuted for it. This was because, during the height of the Roman Empire, any group of people that could be dangerous to Roman ideology would not be tolerated, and the Romans would attempt to put a stop to it. These persecutions of the Christians, however, strengthened, not weakened the Christian church to a point that there would be no way to disperse the community of believers. The main reason that the church stayed together like it did was because of the early establishment of a hierarchy, which, while Kung speculates, would not be the way that Jesus would have wanted the church to be governed, worked in establishing the Christian community into a world religion.

Humanities of Hamlet Essay

The humanities, like most academic disciplines, face questions of popular and public perception. The sciences, for instance, increasingly attract challenges, sometimes of dubious validity, from passionate advocates of so-called ‘deep ecology’ outside the academy, and from postmodern science studies within it. Educationists worldwide face growing discontent with the quality and character of public education. Anthropologists fend off endemic charges of political incorrectness while struggling with the possible demise of their discipline. The fine arts have become inured to occasional ugly public confrontations and persistent bland dismissal by majority opinion. The humanities, it seems, are not alone in feeling the need to clarify their relations with the public. Some of the needed elucidation is trivial, but deserving of wide public dissemination, debate and consideration: for instance, the vocational contribution of the humanities is often misunderstood. Other matters are more fundamental. They have to do with understanding the value of the humanities in relation to the cultural formation of human beings. In South Africa the humanities stand in particular need of winning broader public acceptance and support because they are repositioning themselves in what is in significant respects a new country. Internal scrutiny and revision need to be accompanied by renewal of public understanding, both with regard to potential recruits to the disciplines (students and their parents, for instance) and in terms of the value placed on the humanities by employers and decision-makers in society. Vocationalism Let us begin with the trivial. It is often said that the university is the natural home of those who seek answers to the big questions. Well, here are some big questions: The science graduate asks, ‘Why does it work? ’ The graduate in accounting asks, ‘How much will it cost? ’ The management graduate asks, ‘When can you have it ready? ’ The humanities graduate asks, ‘And will it be French fries or a jacket potato? ’ The apocryphal charge here is that the humanities are all very well, but they don’t put supper on the table. They don’t lead to satisfying and lucrative careers. This is a very common public perception, especially in South Africa where the newly enfranchised middle classes are keen to  consolidate their financial position, while those who anticipate the pressure of redress and affirmative action policies want blue-chip international career qualifications to protect them from policy-weighted competition. How valid is the perception? Confronting the issue in their own particular context, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada set out to demonstrate to society at large, and those who carry weight in the central economy in particular, that the humanities are in fact a good social investment. The Council commissioned a well-respected economist from the University of British Columbia, Robert Allen, to study the impact of investment in the Social Sciences and Humanities on the country’s economic viability in the global arena. He produced two reports (Allen 1998, 1999), and some of his key findings were as follows: Graduates in humanities and social sciences readily find jobs and generally earn high incomes (according to data obtained from Statistics Canada) The unemployment rate among university graduates in humanities and social sciences aged 25-29 is significantly lower (5.8%) than the unemployment rate among graduates of technical, vocational or career programs (findings based on 1991 census data) Most graduates in humanities and social sciences are employed in a professional or managerial capacity (50-80%). That is compared to 60% of counterparts with university degrees in commerce and 23-35% of individuals with technical or vocational diplomas Cost-benefit analysis shows the rate of return to society as follows: Education (10%) Social sciences (9%) Engineering (7. 9%) Humanities (7. 8%) Maths and the physical sciences (7.4%) All university programs analysed in the report in terms of their costs and benefits yield a social rate of return that exceeds the real interest rate in Canada today. These economic analyses were accompanied by other measures. For instance, in support of the findings, a meeting of 15 chancellors of universities in the province of Ontario issued a statement on the value of the Liberal Arts: The liberal arts and sciences must continue to be a seminal part of Ontario’s higher education. This is a practical idea as well as a philosophical one. A number of recent studies have clearly underlined that a well-rounded, general education – learning to think, to write and to express one’s ideas clearly – is as valuable to future employability as technical or technological training. (http://www. trainyourbrain. ca/english/supporters/chancellors. html) Perhaps carrying more weight in relevant quarters than the views of the chancellors (which might, of course, be interpreted by sceptics as merely selfserving conservatism), was an associated statement put out by 30 CEO’s of leading Canadian Hi-tech companies in which they affirmed, ‘We stand with the chancellors of Ontario’s universities. Their document urges: Yes, this country needs more technology graduates, as they fuel the digital economy. But it is impossible to operate an effective corporation in our new economy by employing technology graduates alone. We have an equally strong need for those with a broader background who can work in tandem with technical specialists, helping create and manage the corporate environment. A liberal arts and science education nurtures skills and talents increasingly valued by modern corporations. Our companies function in a state of constant flux. To prosper we need creative thinkers at all levels of the enterprise who are comfortable dealing with decisions in the bigger context. They must be able to communicate – to reason, create, write and peak – for shared purposes: For hiring, training, managing, marketing, and policy-making. In short, they provide leadership. (http://www. trainyourbrain. ca/english/tools/ceo. html) Clearly, these CEOs are no apologists for irrelevancy, ‘fuddyduddy-ism’ or aristocratic, leisure-class values. They are arguing in the best interests of their companies, as part of a concerted campaign to counter popular misperceptions concerning the value of the humanities to the Canadian economy. What about South Africa? This is no doubt heartening for advocates of the humanities; but that was Canada, this is South Africa. In the years immediately following our transition to democracy, Canada was ranked first in the United Nations’ Global Human Development Ratings: South Africa stood at ninety-third (Africa Institute 1996: 24). 1 Might there be grounds for comparison? Would similar findings emerge here? The late Jacob Bronowski, well-known for his contributions to the public understanding of science, put forward with admirable lucidity his view that the kind of society humanity seeks to create is identical with one which enables the work of science (and the arts) to proceed. He writes: As a set of discoveries and devices, science has mastered nature; but it has been able to do so only because its values, which derive from its method, have formed those who practise it into a living, stable and incorruptible society. Here is a community where everyone has been free to enter, to speak his mind, to be heard and contradicted – – The society of scientists is simple because it has a directing purpose: to explore the truth. Nevertheless, it has to solve the problem of every society, which is to find a compromise between man and men. It must encourage the single scientist to be independent, and the body of scientists to be tolerant. From these basic conditions, which form the prime values, there follows step by step a range of values: dissent, freedom of thought and speech, justice, honour, human dignity and self-respect. Our values since the Renaissance have evolved by just such steps. (74-75) Let us accept, for the sake of argument, Bronowski’s idealistic description of science and the community of scientists, and fully acknowledge the tremendous achievements of science, associated with the pursuit of these values. For all its omissions and exclusions, the kind of society portrayed by Bronowski is attractive both to those who adhere to creative exploration as a primary human motivation (mainly the well-to-do), as well as those for whom the increasingly widespread satisfaction of basic human needs is of primary importance. Yet can it plausibly be argued that the stable, ordered society science needs to make its optimal impact will result primarily from a concentration on science or, more mundanely, on maths, science and technology in general public education? Science (as opposed to scientists) has very little to say about how human life should be lived, even by implication. Secondly, the serious pursuit of scientific knowledge has always been a minority undertaking, and the delicious puritanism celebrated by Bronowski is undermined at every point by human nature. Truth-seeking is compromised by self-aggrandisement, lack of initiative, cultural dissonances, wayward appetites, untoward psychological complexities, sloth, factionalism, poverty, dogmatism and stupidity – all the regrettable variations that complicate (and embellish) human experience. Material progress alleviates some of these features and aggravates others, but in all societies, the true scientific proclivity is a minority interest, even among those equipped merely to make use of scientific findings, and who rely on them in their daily work and other interests. Bronowski has, in important respects, got it wrong. Science depends for its very survival upon the creation of a society which respects the values of science and permits them to thrive, and that can only be a society in which the values of the humanities have taken root, are constantly reviewed and renewed, and are shared by the overwhelming majority of the citizenry. It could plausibly be argued that this country needs the humanities even more than a society like Canada. Consider, as one example, the AIDS crisis in South Africa: the belated response to the situation, the culpable delays, the fatuous controversy over antiretrovirals and their provision to sufferers. Is this crisis the result of scientific failure? No, the science is there. The crisis has been the result of poor leadership, political obfuscation, power-plays, cultural regression, lack of social integration and poor, under-trained governmental bureaucracy. Similarly in the local government environment: it is not paucity of maths and science education that challenges programme delivery; it is the poverty of middle-order leadership, the inability to delegate effectively, the lack of initiative and capacity in ordinary civil and bureaucratic functions. The planning is often in place, but the general level of education and its social orientation is inadequate to make effective use of it. In addressing such shortcomings a key misapprehension is the assumption that because the country is desperately short of scientists and technologists, maths and science must be an absolute priority in our schooling system. This is to mistake the part for the whole. The fact is that many children – not only South African children – because of innate disposition, home background or poor education, are light-years from the possibility of attaining a marketable competence in maths or science2, yet they may be highly intelligent and suited to a great many useful, even exalted, functions in government and the economy. Given good teaching, they can learn to think well and searchingly about deep issues that plague contemporary society. It does not take profound mathematical understanding to read a balance sheet, or even to lead a large corporation. Statistical projections, financial control and scenario-planning are service functions, not necessarily leadership tasks. Yet the myth is steadily propagated that mathematical intelligence, more so even than scientific literacy, is what South Africa needs. This is a harmful distortion. Of course we need mathematicians and scientists, as many as we can produce, but unaided they will not be able to deliver the kind of society in which we all want to live. There are no scientific solutions to the problems of underdevelopment and civic education, only important ancillary contributions. Science functions optimally in a democratic, relatively stable and wealthy society. On its own, science is powerless to create such conditions. These conditions are attained and sustained, not through science, but in societies that are absorbing at depth the lessons of the humanities. People want to believe that because science and technology are integral to modern developing economies, such economies will develop if only sufficient emphasis is placed on maths and science in the education system. In fact, the sequence has to be reversed. The conditions of stable governance, effective bureaucracy, adequate infrastructural maintenance, basic skills development, and responsible social services are pre-conditions for the adequate functioning of a scientific and technological culture. Well-educated scientists obviously acquire and exercise their civic imaginations in support of such conditions, but it is more than likely that the products of an education system that marginalizes or travesties the humanities will fail both science and society. The upshot of this realization, if decision-makers could be persuaded to look it in the face, implies, not a down-grading of the emphasis on science and technology, but a much closer and more concerned look at what teachers in schools and universities are doing with the humanities. Successful socio-economic and cultural development requires a conscious balance between the sciences and humanities, and it is far from certain that humanities education in South Africa is sufficiently strong and healthy to carry its share of the burden. Here we come to the second challenge. Do humanities practitioners in South Africa have adequate answers to the questions society is implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) putting to us? Can scholars in the humanities explain their contribution to the public good? Vocationalism in the university Let us start by considering the humanities in the universities. This after all is where much of the understanding that gradually works its way through the schools and into society originates. One of the first things advocates of the humanities would need to make clear to interrogators is the character of a university education as distinct from a purely vocational one. It is not the existence or otherwise of a more or less direct linkage to specific career opportunities that determines whether or not such an education can be described as vocational, but the character of the education undergone. The distinction may be characterized as follows. A vocational education transmits a particular range of knowledge, ideally in its current, up-to-date state, in a mode designed to relate it most nearly to a context of application in society. So, accounting studies emphasize principles and best practice in relation to the legal and policy framework pertaining today, and the present state of the South African business and corporate environment. It is of course possible to teach accounting at different levels of complexity, finesse and specialization, but there is little incentive to move the subject away from its severely practical orientation. PhDs in accounting are rare. With management, the situation shifts slightly, in that a range of management theory will normally be explored, emanating from diverse situations, and whose applicability becomes very much a matter of contextual judgment. It is certainly possible to earn a PhD in management studies, but the subject matter is likely to edge towards issues that belong in the social sciences and humanities proper. The paradigmatic qualification in business studies is the MBA, a programme designed to develop cutting-edge managers and business leaders for different contexts, and among the entry requirements is typically a substantial period of practice. This stipulation is there to ensure adequate integration of theory and practice in the educational process. Law has the potential to move fully into the university paradigm, in that practical legal training can be (and, depending on the level of qualification, should be) supported by rigorous emersion in the history and philosophy of law. In fact, it would be difficult to conceive of adequate legal practice emerging from an academic culture divorced from the humanities. It should be apparent, then, that while many popular career options can be placed along a continuum running between the poles of the narrowly vocational and the so-called purely academic, it is always the degree of emphasis placed on the ‘other-than-vocational’ component that qualifies the programme for inclusion in the domain of true tertiary study. When we turn to the core disciplines comprising the humanities, the connection with a specific profession or career is weak or absent (unless transmission and extension of the discipline itself comes to be counted as such). True, there is often a loose affiliation between the humanities and vocations such as librarianship, teaching, advertising, writing and publishing, but the connection is not intrinsic or necessary. This fact in itself can be problematic, because students whose thinking is constrained by the vocational paradigm, whether through the influence of parents or other social  pressures, will tend to define the value of a humanities degree solely in terms of particular vocational outcomes. ‘Text’ versus ‘language’ If then, humanities undergraduates are not preparing directly for a vocational career, what are they doing? And why aren’t they preparing directly for a career? I want to answer, first, in terms similar to those proposed by Michael Oakeshott (1967: 308-312). The paradigmatic distinction is that between knowing a text and learning a language. A university discipline expresses a particular mode of enquiry, one ‘language’ in the array of languages that makes up the intellectual capital of humanity. Each particular language of enquiry is embodied in a vast array of performances in these languages – good, bad and indifferent – performances that we might call ‘texts’. Vocational education exhausts itself in knowing particular texts, and these texts are chosen because they are current and relevant in the world of practice and application. Learn the text, become expert in it, and you’ve attained the end of vocational education. Once you leave the educational institution – let’s hope it doesn’t call itself a university – you may lack experience (though, as has been indicated, many vocational programmes strive to incorporate work experience so as to minimise this gap), but you are, or should be, ready to perform the text or texts you have learned, this time in the workplace arena. Because of the rapidity of social change, your text, or range of texts, will soon become redundant, out-of-date, and then you must learn additional texts. You trained in servicing VWs, now you must learn Renaults. You learned to programme Fortran and Basic, now you must master C++ and XML. You studied Management by Objectives, now you must re-shape your style to fit transnational corporate policy. You will gain broader experience, you will always be learning, but what you will be learning is text after text after text – and thoroughly necessary and rewarding the experience may well prove to be. The point of higher education from the outset is to learn the language. In higher education, texts are studied not simply for their own sake, but for what we can learn from this study about the mode of enquiry of which they are a good example. In other words, texts are treated as emblematic of some aspects of the language, and we choose the particular texts we study as part of a higher education because they are in a proper state to yield insight into the language they exemplify (Oakeshott: 314). Our object of study is not only the text but the language, and, usually at graduate level, we go on to reach towards a language of languages, which we might call philosophy. The ‘swerve’ from higher education The distinction between ‘text’ and ‘language’ on which I am harping, is rather mysterious and fascinating. Consider this. In order to appreciate, say, Hamlet, I must know the language. In order to know the language, I must read Hamlet. The apparent circularity is embarrassing, and the sort of thing that tends to compromise the humanities in the eyes of the uninitiated. M. A. K. Halliday explores the distinction between text and language – and it is fundamental to the mission of the humanities in general no less than Halliday’s particular discipline of linguistics – by means of an illuminating analogy: – – – the analogy whereby language is to text as climate is to weather is useful to think with. It reminds us that these are not two different things, or rather what we call ‘climate’ and what we call ‘weather’ are the same phenomenon seen from different angles, or different moments of time, and so it is with language and text – – – much misunderstanding has been caused by counterposing these two terms, with language and text being treated as if they were different orders of reality. He goes on to point out a significant limitation to the analogy: Like all analogies, it’s very partial. It’s an abstract tool for thinking with, not a strict proportion, because semiotic systems are not like physical systems. In particular, an instance of a semiotic system carries value; instances of physical systems do not. Of course you may prefer one kind of weather to another, but that’s got no relevance whatever to the status of an instance of that weather in relation to climate: it’s just something to be observed and measured like any element. But a text has its own value, not necessarily, in fact, probably not usually, fixed and determinate – – – And the relation of the discourse value to the underlying system is in fact highly complex. I refer to this as the ‘Hamlet factor’. (Halliday 2001, transcr. Kilpert) A good teacher of the humanities must know the language the text under discussion instantiates, and must be able to move the student from reading ‘text’ to exploring ‘language’, to reveal the distinctiveness of text in relation to the homologies and contrasts available in the language. Some texts disturb, redefine, modify the language in which they are formed. They have a perennially evolving afterlife. In the broad historical perspective of cultural ‘climate’ they remain instances of ‘weather’ that are of intrinsic and perennial interest. This is what Halliday means by the ‘Hamlet factor’. Indeed, not altogether coincidentally, to the best of my knowledge, Hamlet is the only literary work to have a fully-fledged academic journal devoted to its study. 3 Ignorance of the distinction between text and language, and all that it implies, is symptomatic of the kind of confusion that influences well-intentioned but ignorant tertiary institutions to swerve from true higher education towards reductive vocationalism disguised as higher education. What can philosophy do that society values? Aha! – ‘critical thinking’. Right, let’s forget about philosophy and teach critical thinking. What useful outcome can we expect from the literature student? Aha! – ‘communication skills’. Right, let’s forget literature and teach communication skills. And so the reduction goes on, relentlessly impoverishing the tertiary environment, the individual student and society, in the name of relevance, vocationalism, contextualised learning, public accountability (in the shallowest of senses) and all the other misnomers that disguise a lack of educational understanding. Why we still need the humanities today Each of us is born into a relatively narrow life-world. This is as true for those fortunate few who enter upon the human scene embraced by sheltered luxury as it is for the many who expend their years in poverty, far from the seats of wealth, power or influence. Moreover, the character of the world as it impinges on the individual is changing rapidly, everywhere. (This statement is probably valid even for those who strive most to avoid the world, such as those who spend their time in religious retreat. ) What this suggests is that ordinary means of social transmission, where values, attitudes and judgments are passed from generation to generation within the family, or from mentor to ‘apprentice’ in society, are no longer adequate or may prove so only in the most exceptional of cases. These processes may still be necessary, indeed fundamental, to individual human development, but they cannot be sufficient. Rapid technological change and the shifts in values that result, increasing mobility, population growth, the communications and information revolutions, the differential impact of social change on pre-established world views – in fact all the cliches of the globalizing world – add up to an uncertain field of potential experience for the individual. The resources of the family, even in optimal or exceptional circumstances, are insufficient to interpret, let alone adequately to evaluate, this complexity, especially since it is increasingly likely that the individual’s activities and proclivities will shift to arenas and predicaments beyond the experience of the senior generations. This is where the educational potential of the humanities becomes such a powerful resource. By exposing students to detailed study of particular artifacts – works of literature, examples of fine art, philosophical systems, political  prescriptions, musical compositions, social theories – we avail them of the opportunity to form and test their own judgments, to challenge received opinion, to argue positions within a community of informed discussion and debate, to think and re-think their views in the company of major artists and diagnosticians, each of whom has put their work forward for exactly this purpose, namely, to help shape and re-shape human beings. The power of critical thought, trained and developed in this manner, is central to the formation of a creative democratic citizenry anticipated, for example, in South Africa’s White Paper of 1997. 4 As a society, we need the formal space of the humanities in which to engage with a full range of estimates concerning human potential, past and future. In the course of such studies students will also, no doubt, learn to think clearly and write well, but this is incidental. The mission of the humanities is to mould human identity and purpose in relation to changing times and circumstances. No other field of enquiry, not science, not sociology, not established religion, can meet this imperative need quite as well. Some will claim never to have felt such a need, or to have abandoned it for ‘the real world’ after fleeting initiation at school or university. For these, the humanities are so much frippery, a merely decorative intellectual surplus, or shallow entertainment which ignores the imperatives of the way the economic world works. Such people intend to stick to the ‘text’ they inherit, and perform it unthinkingly to their own best advantage. The abject misery of thousands, though it seems melodramatic to say so, comes to rest on the shoulders of those who have reached this conclusion. The founding impulse of the humanities To counter such views from a fons et origo, we might go back to a period before the Romans, before Plato even, to the founding moment of the humanities. It is commonplace to acknowledge, as do scientists and everyone other than proponents of ethno-science, that science arose once only on planet earth, among the ancient Greeks (Wolpert 25). 5 It is less commonly acknowledged that the western humanities, too, rose at a particular moment among the Greeks, though in all probability similar moments passed unrecorded in other cultures. The originary impulse is expressed (or invented) during Socrates’ famous discourse in the Apology, as recorded and fictionalized by Plato: If I tell you that this is the greatest good for a human being, to engage every day in arguments about virtue and the other things you have heard me talk about, examining both myself and others, and if I tell you that the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being, you will be even less likely to believe what I am saying. But that’s the way it is, gentlemen, as I claim, though it’s not easy to convince you of it. (Apology 38a, trans.Nussbaum 1) ‘The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being’ (emphasis mine): ‘that’s the way it is. ’ This is the bald standpoint of the humanities expressed in a nutshell, and it is not the easiest position to justify to defenders of the status quo, either inside or outside the academy. Let’s look at some of the issues. Why was Socrates on trial for his life? He was teaching that the young ought to devote time and intelligence to finding satisfactory arguments to justify their beliefs, rather than simply following those of their parents and the civic authorities. Not even the gods were to be exempt from rational enquiry. Aristophanes, in his comedy The Clouds, viewed Socrates as dangerously subversive of orthodox education, which he took to be a process whereby the young are indoctrinated in the traditions and values of their culture, as is the case in traditional societies everywhere. In other words, for Aristophanes education meant learning the text of your society. Not so with Socrates. He wanted people to study the language of humanity, though he recognized that this was no easy matter. We are back to the relation between ‘text’ and ‘language’? Socrates held that by systematically questioning text, probing it from all possible perspectives, exploring alternatives, we may by degrees arrive at the language, or at least important elements of it. It is important to stress, ‘from all possible perspectives,’ because Socrates was also an early advocate of truly democratic learning. He was willing to engage in philosophical discussion with anyone and everyone, in the hope that they might know more than he did, or contribute something uniquely valuable. Plato, by contrast, wanted to restrict radical questioning to an elite who, through philosophical investigation, would gain access to timeless truths, enabling its members to rule justly over the masses. Here we have the origin of the tension between the humanities as a source of elite leadership – the Platonism of government and corporate management – and the humanities as a democratic investigation of human meaning and value. 6 Socrates was utterly serious in his claim for intensive rational enquiry as essential to discovering a true mode of living, the good life. The unexamined life is fit only for something less than a human being. Those who unthinkingly follow tradition, who defend and reproduce text uncritically, are trapped in what Wittgenstein might call a ‘form of life’ (241). Plato likened it to living imprisoned in a cave, pursuing a troglodyte existence ruled by convention and fear of the unknown (Republic Book 7). It is interesting to speculate that the tame Platonic ‘puppet show’ may have primitive origins in the image of early humans huddled in solidarity round a fire, the cave walls patterned by flickering shadows, their shapes shifting and unaccountable, while outside lie unknowable dangers, not to be faced in the dark, and largely indecipherable within the cave despite the artificial fire-light. It is a potent representation of fear. Those venturing forth on the intellectual scramble to seek the source of the shadows (to find truth) must be prepared to risk themselves on two counts: first in view of what they might find outside, and second on account of what their fellow humans might do to hold them to the text that currently governs behavior in the cave. Those leaving the enchanted circle may not return. Those remaining have to learn to tolerate the courageous quest of those who ‘go beyond,’ and to deal with the emotional disturbance and communal risk involved. We know what happened to Socrates. We worry that today’s South African society, focused wholly on instrumental programmes directed to immediate ends, will not have the courage, vision or knowledge to support the quest.