Week 1: What's the Problem with Separation?

As a microbiology major and a comparative literature minor, I am more than familiar with the separation between the arts and sciences. I am most of all familiar with the long walk I have to take from class to class, to get me between my literature courses, and my science courses, and my research laboratory. The fact that north and south campus here at UCLA are divided in almost every single way is no new fact to me, and it has never sat well with me.

We even pit north campus against south campus!

Charles Percy Snow identified the problem very clearly; that the separation of art and science emerged with industrialization and that our education system, our curricula is to blame. RSA Animate's adaptation of Sir Ken Robinson's talk also hits the nail on the head when he says that we are an education system based upon separation. We separate based on age, based on subject, and we have this "production line mentality" that is epitomized by standardized testing. 

When did education become about testing?

Production Line Mentality

By separating our students, we place them into these categories, and then we leave them there, stuck. These students go on to college to believe that he or she must pick a single choice: art or science. Robinson resonated with me when he said that we all had this innate ability for divergent thinking, but then lost them due to the way that our education system forces us into these standardized molds, consisting of art or science, but never both. 

I have always loved the sciences but have also loved the arts. I have chosen an education here at UCLA that has both elements of research, physical science as well as the humanities, specifically literature. But what I can't help to notice everyday, is that my major and my minor feel incompatible with one another. People tend to ask, "but why?" when I tell them I study both microbiology and literature. Why? Because I love them both! Why should I have to choose between one or the other?

I agree with Robinson that the separation between art and science is a huge problem in our education system, but I do understand that college is designed to prime us for the job market and I find it difficult to find job opportunities that embrace both art and science. 

Sources:

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.

RSA Animate-Changing Education Paradigms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.

Two Cultures part 1. UCOnlineProgram. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNI7dF3DIAM

The UCLA Fund. Photo. http://www.theuclafund.ucla.edu/news/nvschallengewinner.aspx