Professors encourage their students to skillfully analyze and asses problems to mindfully solve them, and that is an amazing thing. However, we are forgetting to teach our students to think empathetically. In Ma, Yo-Yo, “Necessary Edges” Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers, 3rd edition, edited by Barclay Barrios, 2016, p. 257, he informs us that, “advances in neurobiology make it clear that we humans have dual neural pathways, one for critical thinking, and one for empathetic thinking”. This tells us that we can only think one way at a given time, but with learning and practice, developing the skills to think both ways at the same time is possible. If the arts teach empathy and the sciences teach logic, then the integration of these areas of study can ignite this new way of thinking. This is crucial because “wise and balanced judgement results from integrating the critical and empathetic” (Ma, Yo-Yo 257). Making proper judgments is an extremely valuable skill in school, in the workplace, and in life in
Professors encourage their students to skillfully analyze and asses problems to mindfully solve them, and that is an amazing thing. However, we are forgetting to teach our students to think empathetically. In Ma, Yo-Yo, “Necessary Edges” Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers, 3rd edition, edited by Barclay Barrios, 2016, p. 257, he informs us that, “advances in neurobiology make it clear that we humans have dual neural pathways, one for critical thinking, and one for empathetic thinking”. This tells us that we can only think one way at a given time, but with learning and practice, developing the skills to think both ways at the same time is possible. If the arts teach empathy and the sciences teach logic, then the integration of these areas of study can ignite this new way of thinking. This is crucial because “wise and balanced judgement results from integrating the critical and empathetic” (Ma, Yo-Yo 257). Making proper judgments is an extremely valuable skill in school, in the workplace, and in life in