One of the things they missed was literature. Ok, some of them missed literature, the other half wanted more grammar exercises and games (yes, you read that right). So we talked about what sort of cultural knowledge they thought they should have and how it would help them be better engineers and so forth. (I did have to point out to them that once they graduated from university they were unlikely to be locked in a room with a bunch of other people exactly like themselves.)
So we got onto the topic of the humanities in education -- art, literature, music, philosophy, and so forth -- and for some reason we paused on music. We paused because I asked them the following question:
How many of you have heard of Tchaikovsky?
One hand went up. One. Out of, oh, about 65. And that's only because the person that hand belonged to happened to be born in the same country as the above-mentioned composer. Well, perhaps Russian composers just aren't that popular in the mideast. So I tried again:
Mozart?
Beethoven?
Puccini?
Verdi?
Chopin?
No, no, no, no,and no. A few thought they'd heard of Puccini, but I suspect that may be due to the existence of some expensive handbag store that adopted the name to make it sound as if the Chinese rubbish for sale was made in Italy. The sad part is that all the bright students know that they don't know lots of things about the world.
The stupid ones just don't give a shit.
