Hm. I’m tired, but I thought I’d try to make a point despite being so unbelievably tired
During one of the classes today, the differences between humanities and science students was once again brought up. The assertion this time round was that science students are less creative and are less able to think. What an assertion to make!
Now, I reckon I’m more of a science student than a humanities student. I’m hopeless at English and anything vaguely involving writing such as Econs. I prefer the sciences and math. As to why I prefer them, I’ve once thought over it and could never really decide why. Perhaps it’s the degree of certainty that there is in a science, though it has greatly diminished over the years. The boundaries blur, the definitions become vague. Why, then I noticed, science and humanities don’t necessarily have to be that different after all.
I am however of the opinion that there is some truth to the statement the teacher made during class today. The reason not being that the sciences are inherently inferior to humanities but because of the way it is taught in our class today. I don’t claim to be very well versed with all the ways humanities are taught today. But from what I see, the teachers are very interested in the justification of your stand, the implications of your stand and the logical reasoning through which you have reached your stand.
Now, look back to the other side, sciences. I recently had a teacher who came to class and scoffed at the idea of learning in class. I am shot weird looks when I ask questions regarding why an assumption is made or why such an answer was arrived at. In science, we seem to be learning a set of rules that we can apply to different topics. Learning a topic in science involves knowing what you can do to those equations you come across in that specific topic. There is absolutely no concern over WHY we are allowed to use that set of rules or the implications that result from us using that set of rules.
As such, science has become a mugging exercise and you end up memorising all these stupid rules instead of really thinking. On the other hand, you can’t really do that for humanities. The way questions arise are too varied such that you are unable to purely mug for it and memorise. Hence it stimulates thinking. Ah. Thinking, how did we end up there again.
