I agree with the author up to a point:

Insofar as literature mainly describes fiction poetry and prose, and it is true, these help us learn to think for ourselves (especially true of poetry), what’s missing, here, is a reference to philosophy in history. Read on – careful reader; I’ll address what you’re likely thinking….

Including ‘philosophy’ as a decoration at the top of the meme doesn’t satisfy the damage done by its omission from the statement (and doesn’t explain the loss of ‘history’ – particularly when, in this writer’s view, philosophy, especially, is paramount in evolving one’s thinking – far more than literature, as literature often solidifies our modes of thinking left unchallenged – or it even corrupts it – leaving its processes intact without philosophical analysis.

Literary, historical and sociological criticism are philosophy-based. Without them, literature can be left largely misunderstood; when you take a literature course, if the teacher leading the class does not inspire rigorous analysis of the works explored s/he is failing in philosophy; when s/he does – she or he is a champion of philosophy.

Take religion – a potentially and historically pernicious form of literature – protected from philosophy with scorn, politics, and violence; it’s a lot like disease being protected from the recourse of medicine.

I don’t know whether the author of this meme was shortsighted – or deliberately did not include philosophy in the text, only relegating it to a perfunctory position of decoration at the top – but I’ve been railing about the omission of philosophy from elementary education for a long time now.

The only people who champion the excommunication of a meta understanding of philosophy from elementary education, I suspect, are those who want religion to champion in the minds of the young (and nationalism is a form of religion); philosophy introduced in the education of the young is often suspiciously called “corrupting the young” I suppose more so by conservatives, which is done to control the minds of the young. If you don’t believe me you’re not looking hard enough or thinking hard enough, I suspect – and you certainly don’t know the story of Socrates and his death. He was accused of this very “crime”.

The modern proofs of this dilemma are evident in how the right wing of our own country bans literature, which in the absence of philosophical education is the only (and anemic) hope left in challenging young minds to think, as the the meme suggests.

Leaving formal philosophical education out of elementary education and depending on it’s watered-down cousins in literary analysis is a lot like allowing saints and sinners to run the dorm parties while keeping the police locked out of the campus.

CA