Blog 1 - Two Cultures
Within these articles, an obvious opinion of the separation of two cultures appears. Both Vesna and Snow see the division made, specifically in education, between art and science to be destructive. Snow develops on this by addressing the existence of cultures or dogmas of either side that limit the thinking and advancement of the field. Vesna discusses the difficulty in separating the two of them, as it will violate the boundaries that are perceived by society.
In my world, I have both seen and been in either field. A cross-educated household raised me: One parent with a science background and one in the more liberal arts. What was in common between them was the concept of wanting me to have a diverse education. I played 3 varsity sports in high school, and continue to play in college. I sang in choirs, took art classes, acted in plays and submitted works to exhibitions. I took high-level biology and chemistry classes up to my junior year, and I took drama and art until my senior year. I was never asked or told to pick a side. Never encouraged one way or the other. Always supported in every academic and extracurricular decision.
The perspectives of the articles were interesting, but the examples given by Steven Pinker inhis interview were particularly interesting. My best friend, Piper, is ADD and she also is very interested in Film. One of his examples was having filmmakers learn about the human attention span, which is exactly something she would be interested in.
Personally, Sir Ken Robinson's Changing Paradigms is what hit home the most for me. His discussion on the separation between academic and non-academic was very interesting. Robinson, like Bohm in his article Creativity, discuss just that: Creativity. More specifically how alternative thinking and the presentation of thinking. The economic aspect was something that I think is always underlying in education. How can this make me money? What major gets me the best job? And that is not always the right way to think. Where I did not necessarily agree with all he said, education reform is an important topic and one we need to all think about more, especially as students.
In my world, I have both seen and been in either field. A cross-educated household raised me: One parent with a science background and one in the more liberal arts. What was in common between them was the concept of wanting me to have a diverse education. I played 3 varsity sports in high school, and continue to play in college. I sang in choirs, took art classes, acted in plays and submitted works to exhibitions. I took high-level biology and chemistry classes up to my junior year, and I took drama and art until my senior year. I was never asked or told to pick a side. Never encouraged one way or the other. Always supported in every academic and extracurricular decision.
Personally, Sir Ken Robinson's Changing Paradigms is what hit home the most for me. His discussion on the separation between academic and non-academic was very interesting. Robinson, like Bohm in his article Creativity, discuss just that: Creativity. More specifically how alternative thinking and the presentation of thinking. The economic aspect was something that I think is always underlying in education. How can this make me money? What major gets me the best job? And that is not always the right way to think. Where I did not necessarily agree with all he said, education reform is an important topic and one we need to all think about more, especially as students.
Sources:
Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being in between." Leonardo 34, no. 2 (2001): 121-25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577014.
Snow, C. P. "The Scientific Revolution." The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, 1959, 1`-58. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139196949.004.
Bohm, D. "On Creativity." Leonardo 1, no. 2 (1968): 137-49. doi:10.2307/1571951.
RSA, The. "RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms." Youtube, Youtube, 14 Oct. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Pinker, Steven. "SEEDMAGAZINE.COM Two Cultures Steven Pinker." Interview by SeedMagazine. SeedMagazine, May 18, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BUbVc7qVpg.
I feel like every child should be raised like you were where you were encouraged to try everything that was available to you. There are a lot of things that people might be good at that they never try. Supporting kids curiosity and helping them branch out will only help them in the end.
ReplyDelete