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Sample Response to Real GRE Issue Questions
Issue # 3: "Colleges and
universities should offer more courses on popular music, film, advertising
and television because contemporary culture has much greater relevance for
students than do arts and literature of the past."
To the extent that contemporary culture is, by definition, current, it
does have a much more immediate impact on students and people in general
than do the arts and literature of the past. Contemporaneous events
directly affect everyone alive at the time because they are occurring at
precisely the same time as the individual's existence. But to paraphrase a
famous philosopher: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to
repeat it." To a great extent, past arts and literature shape who we are
as people at least as much as, if not more than, contemporary culture
does.
Everyone alive today is affected in one way or another by the events of
the past. Past events have directly led to the way that the world is
shaped today. The arts and literature are one of the most well-preserved
and documented resources that can give us a direct link into what actually
happened in the past. Consider the religious writings of the Bible, the
Koran and those of Confucius, as well as those related to Buddhism,
Hinduism and all other religions. These writings directly relate to, and
in some cases to a great extent control, the behavior of human beings
today even though most were written hundreds if not thousands of years
ago. Artworks relating to these religions also have a profound effect.
Consider Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, or the
vast myriad of historic Buddhist statues throughout Asia, or the ancient
Muslim mosques throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. It would be
difficult to argue that contemporary culture has more relevance to today's
students when compared with the relevance of these examples of past arts
and literature.
At times it is difficult to determine what exactly is the difference
between contemporary culture and the arts and literature of the past.
Shakespeare's classic writings are continuously being adapted into current
movies that are often big hits with students and the general population as
a whole. Millions of people every year view classic works of art in
museums all over the world. Readings of religious texts have never gone
out of style with a large part of the world's population. Clashes between
centuries-old cultures and religions, such as that of Western countries
and Islamic extremists and that of Hindus and Muslims in India,
demonstrate that the religious artifacts that could be called arts and
literature of the past are very much a part of contemporary culture.
While the past can certainly not be ignored, a large part of what students
must learn at university is based on contemporary culture. Most religious
learning, at least of one's own religion, occurs either at home or early
on in a student's education. At the university level, studies of politics,
business and the computer sciences must deal in great detail with the
latest advances in contemporary culture in order to remain up to date and
relevant. Other subjects, such as mathematics, agriculture, and the arts
and literature themselves look largely to the past for the core knowledge
that is taught in these courses. The application of these lessons from the
past are entirely appropriate to help put contemporary culture into some
type of historical context that can help students to understand and
comprehend the rapidly changing world that they are living in.
It would seem self-evident that a properly educated university student
must find a balance between studying contemporary culture without
neglecting the study of arts and literature of the past. The study of one
is not mutually exclusive of the study of the other. The benefits of a
well-rounded education come from not only knowing the state of the world
as it exists today but also in knowing how the world arrived at this stage
of development in the first place.
(632 words)
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