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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I feel somewhat sorry for you.  Art (including literary arts) are what make us human.   Literature is just as worthy of serious study as any other subject and in fact can tell us a great deal about history.

Incidentally, Greek mythology is history.  Could you study India without Hinduism?  How then could you study the ancient world without their religious mythology?  As for your thoughts on a classical education -- there is a reason that Shakespeare and Homer's works have survived the centuries.

My teen will loves science and everything related.  She presently dreams of becoming a chemist.  But she loves Shakespeare (especially Richard III), named her pet after a Greek goddess, and curls up with the latest crappy YA fantasy novel with pure pleasure.

It may "take seconds to stare at a painting."  It takes me seconds to stare at pretty Chinese calligraphy and admire the beauty of it but I walk away as ignorant of what I observed as when I started.  Visual art, like literature, frequently draws upon historical and/or religious themes.  Where is the joy Ito "stare at a painting" for a few seconds when I don't understand the context?  How can I grasp the artist's hard work, his concept, his ability to use color and space and shadow to create a unified whole if I only stare at his work for a few seconds?

OP, you really are to be pitied.  I love history and I have a history degree.  One of my great personal pleasures is experiencing history through the filter of literature, art, and music.  Be it dragging my kids to see a Lope de Vega play, reading an Isabel Allende or Chinua Achebe novel, or visiting the National Portrait Gallery to see the Ballet Rousses (sp) exhibit.  [/quote]

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