- In order to become well-rounded individuals, all college students should be required to take courses in which they read poetry, novels, mythology, and other types of imaginative literature.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.
The statement above asserts that students whether from arts, social sciences, engineering, or natural sciences should be required to take several literature courses dealing with fictional works for their true maturation as intellects. In general, it is hard to deny that familiarity with poetry, novels, and other types of imaginative works can contribute to students’ balanced development. However, I am reluctant to agree with the idea that earning of adequate literary sensibilities comes from lectures on those subjects.
Still, I firmly believe that students of any major may benefit from exposure to the worlds into which those fictional works guide. By reading poetry, we can experience and explore diverse levels of our emotions. From novels and soft essays, students can see the otherwise unknown dimensions of human experiences that are distinct from their own narrow world. Even dramas and short stories can provide readers with valuable insights, wisdoms, and totally new perspectives to see the world. At least, our spirits tired of hard thinking in math, sciences, and logics can be relieved or revitalized by courses in imaginative literature.
Nonetheless, these merits do not automatically guarantee the wisdom to require all students to experience the wonderful world of literature in a classroom for two or three semesters. Basically, expanding our mental worlds with imaginative works is one thing and listening preaches about them from a lecturer is another. Unfortunately, most official classes in literature do not allow students to cure their tired spirits through peaceful, leisurely readings; instead, they demand students to analyze the complex, abstract, theoretical dimensions of literature. Rather than being truly pleased by Byron and Keats, students are usually given another burdensome assignment to find out such stressful things as poets of Post-romanticism’ contributions to modern history of poem and their uniqueness in poetic styles. -----------------------
The speaker asserts that reading fictional works is desirable and even necessary to most modern human beings. In some sense, it is undeniable that imaginative literature including poetry, novels, and mythology is helpful to enrich people’s intellectual and emotional experiences. Only by exaggerating the possible benefits from it, however, the speaker is underestimating the diverse problems inherent in it including weakening of the ability to adapt to a society and b2.
Of course, few would disagree that reading fictions or fantasies sometimes produces diverse benefits for modern life. To most people working in the areas which require high level of logical and analytical thinking, distancing from their routines by being exposed to the opposite ways of living can help them refreshed and relaxed. Even, some scientists or investigators have been known to get valuable hunches and ideas from this refreshing moment. While fictions and fantasies are seemingly antithetical to realism and actual sciences, they are sometimes synergic and harmonious to stimulate people’s imaginations especially because they are also based on commonsensical human reasoning.
Similarly, to most young children, fictions and imaginative works help them to expand their scope and range of everyday thinking. Instead of limiting their interests to the narrowly bounded traditional or too much practical thoughts, the young may explore new areas of human endeavors by being exposed to fictional works. It is well known that modern Robotics or computer sciences were stimulated by some earlier fictional works whose seemingly nonsensical description of the future was denigrated by the uninspired many.
Nevertheless, it does not necessarily mean that reading fictional works is always a virtue to everyone. To most young children who should equip themselves with both sound sense of realism and practicality and ample imagination, excessive exposure to fancy and imaginative stories may weaken their ability to adapt to the actual society whose nature is never simplified or dramatic. Some famous social anomalies among the “X-generation,” a unique generation whose childhood is full of the overflowing fantasies, video-games, new types of imaginative television programs, tell us that exposure to fictional works is not always beneficial to people’s lives. Instead, without being complemented by the sense of reality, those works may produce negative social phenomena such as mal-adaptation or self-isolation from the actual life places.
Moreover, exposure to various fictional works can also be related to another negative social problem—disrespect to normal science and sticking to diverse paranormal pursuits.