![]() ![]() The polarised nature of popular politics and swelling tides of historic bigotry show us that we need intimacy with the lived experiences of marginalised groups and awareness of how dominant identities have been constructed, as well as critical distance from the ideologies that threaten to consume us. Now more than ever, we need to be encouraging successive generations to enter the world with curiosity, sensitivity and criticality. ![]() Now more than ever, we need to be encouraging generations to enter the world with curiosity, sensitivity and criticality I honed the craft of critical thinking, which I took with me into a 15-year career in teaching and continue to lean on as a writer of analytical nonfiction. I learned how to unpick and examine, to contextualise and empathise, to peek into blindspots that I didn’t know I had. I learned to read, really read, for meaning. Studying English gave me the gift of criticality. Even better was what I didn’t realise I was signing up for. I just knew that literature was a portal to worlds I had never experienced and a way of meeting people I could never meet elsewhere a way of exploring new thoughts. I wasn’t thinking about my salary or earning potential when I opted to study literature and write essays. This speaks not only to the declining status of humanities and the arts, but, crucially, to an economic climate in which these disciplines lose value in the first place. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has stated an intention to phase out degrees that don’t “increase earning potential”, revealing a myopic prejudice against subjects that don’t have an immediate monetary value. Ucas, the universities admissions service, has revealed that the number of acceptances for English studies (including English literature) has fallen from 9,480 in 2012 to 6,435 in 2021. Already, Sheffield Hallam has dropped its English literature course, citing low demand, while Cumbria and Roehampton have also announced big cuts to the humanities. ![]() This attitude is codified in a set of new rules proposed by the government, refusing to fund courses if fewer than 60% of students are in professional jobs or studying for a further degree within 15 months of graduating. In a way, this is the great tragedy of modern education – how it gets reduced into pure, cold pragmatism, a series of steps towards gainful employment and financial security. I started out with a declaration of my love of words and barely a paragraph later, I find myself referencing the big three currencies of formal assessment. © Artwork is copyright of Victoria Ryabinina.And boom, just like that, this whimsical, heartfelt piece of writing has already been derailed by the serious business of “qualifications” those slips of paper that allow passage from one set of educational checkpoints to another.
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