Claire Van Zant was born Claire Dalling on May 30, 1922 in Ayr, Scotland. She attended the Royal Academy in London until the building was destroyed by a German bomb in the early days of WWII. She was one of the first women conscripted into the Royal Air Force. During her time in service, she worked as a codebreaker for bomb raids and then was sent to Bergen-Belsen in order to help the displaced populace of the camp. After the war, she returned to England, studied at Oxford (under C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien) and taught. She came to the United States in 1963 and created the first Humanities program of study at Mayo High School. She remained there until her retirement. On June 12, 1964, she married Robert D. Van Zant in Rochester. They were both members of Calvary Episcopal Church. Mrs. Van Zant died at the age of 96 on July 14, 2018.
Humanities: Maximizing human potential for a lifetime
It is that part of men and women which makes them endure, with heroism, when all hope appears to be lost.
"Currently in the world of education preference and emphasis is certainly upon the sciences, mathematics, physics-biology-chemistry, computer sciences and technical training of all kinds.
But yet, in a mood of great disquiet emanating from violent eruptions of race hatred, stormy protest, fear of AIDS epidemic and the prevailing persistence of a terrifying drug war, there is an emerging consciousness of the need to provide liberal education which will prepare the student for life as well as for life's work..."
HUMANITIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY: A READING LIST
The awesome comprehension of man's potential in achieving for civilization, progress, retrogression or destruction.
100 years after Claire Van Zant's birth, science fiction predictions of artificial intelligence and omnipresent media have become reality. The warnings of Van Zant's classes have either been unheeded or are still being grappled with. Many will argue that the state of Humanities— the academic discipline is in decline. It has either been abandoned in favor of STEM Education or it has been proclaimed the villainous progenitor of Woke culture.
With all the gloom and doom floating around, I wondered who are the voices taking over for Kafka, Plato, Orwell, Lewis and Dostoyevsky. And so I sent in search of them, employing a distinctly 21st Century method:
I consulted AI.
