I was talking to a friend recently, and he was saying how all those aesthetic subjects he learnt at school were completely useless. He went on to say that 'Arts' isn't as important and useful as Science or Math. His objection to aesthetics was that there wasn't any particular form - Art, Music, Dancing, Literature - that he wasn't really good at. So he says he was quite fed up at school being forced to learn useless things.
I for one disagree. For several reasons.
Firstly, you cannot compare two subjects and say which is more important. That's just like saying a doctor is more important than a plumber. Each subject is important and interesting - yes to different people - but just because something does not appeal to YOU doesnt mean it wont appeal to ME either. It's perfectly fine to say you absolutely HATE Eng.Lit or Math or Music - but that doesn't make it less important. Most troubles in this world are made by and because of people who think their point of view is the ONLY point of view.
Secondly, Art is just as useful and important as Science. Artistic endeavour is I believe essential to decent human society. You can learn how to build chip sets and rockets and robots from Sceince, but Art can show you how to share and appreciate someone else's dream. And Art is powerful. People cry reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin or English Patient or watching PS I love you or City of angels. People laugh and break into song during Sound of Music or Mamma Mia!. Art does that. People do NOT laugh/cry/dance when they buy a iPhone/laptop/flat screen tv. (If they do, there's something seriously wrong with them).
And I can truly say that even Famous Five has taught me quite a lot! Such as having the pluck to do what you think is right if nothing else. :)
Thirdly, why do we need to draw a thick yellow line separating Arts and Sciences anyway? Anyone who loves programming knows that there is a certain art of programming and there is a certain artistic beauty in an elegantly coded program. And what about Science fiction? And I'm not talking about those soft popular SciFi either. I'm talking about Rendezvous with Rama and 2001 and Excession. I remember reading Excession and being fascinated by how Ian Banks illustrates the idea of dimensions.
I'm sure we all have pet subjects and hate subjects. If I could, I would've skipped Social studies and Commerce & accounting all together. Not to mention System analysis & design and Comp.Sys.Architecture. Ugh. But those subjects are VERY important subjects. For example, what would we do without Commerce? Not a lot I'll tell you.
But just because you have no talent for something, and you have no taste for something doesn't mean it's a load of crap.
I for one disagree. For several reasons.
Firstly, you cannot compare two subjects and say which is more important. That's just like saying a doctor is more important than a plumber. Each subject is important and interesting - yes to different people - but just because something does not appeal to YOU doesnt mean it wont appeal to ME either. It's perfectly fine to say you absolutely HATE Eng.Lit or Math or Music - but that doesn't make it less important. Most troubles in this world are made by and because of people who think their point of view is the ONLY point of view.
Secondly, Art is just as useful and important as Science. Artistic endeavour is I believe essential to decent human society. You can learn how to build chip sets and rockets and robots from Sceince, but Art can show you how to share and appreciate someone else's dream. And Art is powerful. People cry reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin or English Patient or watching PS I love you or City of angels. People laugh and break into song during Sound of Music or Mamma Mia!. Art does that. People do NOT laugh/cry/dance when they buy a iPhone/laptop/flat screen tv. (If they do, there's something seriously wrong with them).
And I can truly say that even Famous Five has taught me quite a lot! Such as having the pluck to do what you think is right if nothing else. :)
Thirdly, why do we need to draw a thick yellow line separating Arts and Sciences anyway? Anyone who loves programming knows that there is a certain art of programming and there is a certain artistic beauty in an elegantly coded program. And what about Science fiction? And I'm not talking about those soft popular SciFi either. I'm talking about Rendezvous with Rama and 2001 and Excession. I remember reading Excession and being fascinated by how Ian Banks illustrates the idea of dimensions.
I'm sure we all have pet subjects and hate subjects. If I could, I would've skipped Social studies and Commerce & accounting all together. Not to mention System analysis & design and Comp.Sys.Architecture. Ugh. But those subjects are VERY important subjects. For example, what would we do without Commerce? Not a lot I'll tell you.
But just because you have no talent for something, and you have no taste for something doesn't mean it's a load of crap.
Many arenas comingle the concepts of "art" and "science". There is an art to just about any type of endeavor that one might undertake. There is also often a science to undertaking the endeavor successfully.
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