Blog #9

The surrounding context of Yo-Yo Ma’s essay is that it was originally published on the World Post, which is an online news and blog site in Davos Switzerland, January 2014. Yo-Yo Ma is an esteemed cellist who has won numerous prestigious awards. The imposed context is that I am reading this text for the purpose of learning Yo-Yo Ma’s perspective as to whether or not art should be incorporated into the education system with the same level of importance as the STEM subjects. The circumstances behind my personal reading experience are that it is a required reading for class that will give us a new perspective behind the usefulness and ability of the arts. The intentional context is that Yo-Yo Ma is attempting to show the reader that the arts are a necessary component to education as they help build connections and interpersonal relations. Another claim of his is that the arts inspire empathy, which also are a key component to the building of interpersonal relations. Unfamiliar words that I noticed within the essay are “empirically” (by means of observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.) Yo-Yo Ma uses this word when discussing the role emotions play in high level cognitive reasoning. Another unfamiliar word is “equilibrium” (a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced.) Yo-Yo Ma uses this word in his argument when discussing how art can maintain a spiritual balance between people. The last unfamiliar word that I noticed is “humanist” (Humanism a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and colle,ctively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence). 

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