The immediate context is mainly about the author and the text. The author is Yo-Yo Ma, who is a very talented cellist and songwriter. He has won over seventeen Grammy Awards and has produced more than ninety albums. Besides this great achievement, he has also received many awards. “Necessary Edges: Arts, Empathy, and Education” was published on the World Post , which is an online news and blog site.
The imposed context includes the circumstances around my personal reading experience, and my purpose for reading it. My main purpose for reading this was for English class. However, throughout my personal experience of actually reading the essay, I came to learn and agree that empathy is “the ultimate quality that acknowledges our identity as members of one human family”. The essay goes on to say that teaching of the arts should be added to education. I agree with Yo-Yo Ma in this aspect personally because I believe empathy and imagination are important to have.
The internal context, or rhetorical situation, is that Yo-Yo Ma believes implementing art in the education system is necessary. He wants to change STEM to STEAM. This will allow kids to have passion for school, and gain many skills such as collaboration, flexible thinking, and disciplined imagination. These skills are essential for today’s society, as well as the concepts of equilibrium and globalization. Overall, in the text he argues that art is able to change peoples lives.
Glossing three unfamiliar terms:
Bandwidth- a range of frequencies within a given band
Bolster- support or strengthen
Lemmings- a small rodent found in the Arctic or tundra biome
Well said. I had never associated the arts with empathy before reading this essay. I’m glad that you noticed this point, as well. 3/3