Week 1: Two Cultures

A representation of the merging of two cultures

    The arts were the first thing I remember peaking my interest as a curious little girl. In 6th grade I signed up for band class, choosing the clarinet as my instrument. Little did I know how much I’d grow to love it. When I started playing, whether alone or with my orchestra, everything just made sense. There was a level of understanding that could not be expressed in words soaring through the music. 

 

Little 6th grade me and my clarinet

My sophomore year of high school I had to abandon my clarinet because I didn’t have the schedule space for it. Economics, government, geography, computer science, were new classes that demanded my time. My school system clearly gave importance to these subjects over more humanitarian, non-STEM endeavors. 

    The Youtube video, “Changing Education Paradigms”, notes how this is a common occurrence in the school system – we get “educated” and encouraged to stray from a humanities career, as science is more valued. A Los Angeles Times article written by a high school student detailed a first-hand account on how her school had her complete a career assignment, and how the separation of humanities and STEM fueled great debate over which was more valuable.

    I see this divide in a physical representation as well. In week 1 lecture part III, Professor Vesna asks us to consider how the two cultures of humanities and science are divided on our own campuses. As a student at UCSB, our science-related buildings are the most new, tended to, and shown off, while our humanities buildings are the oldest and more devalued. They are physically separated in distance as well. Not to mention, our College of Creative Studies is so run-down and many students don’t even know we have such a building.

    C. P. Snow writes in “Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution” about how dangerous this divide between literary and scientific culture is. In order to progress as an intellectual society, we must close the gap between these two cultures, as each one has much to learn and gain from the other. Seeing these cultures as opposites, or even enemies, enforces stagnation and divide. Professor Vesna offers a solution in her article “Toward a Third Culture: Being in between”. Vesna proposes that a third culture is needed to bring us together, in the form of shared appreciation, communication, and interdisciplinary education. I agree with this perspective, and think that our similarities, not our differences, are what unites us.

My favorite piece I ever played, Jupiter by Gustav Holst. Music is

more scientific than we give it credit for -- it is an auditory representation of math!

Citation of Resources 

HDclassical. "Gustav Holst - Jupiter." YouTube, uploaded by HDclassical, 7 Oct. 2010, 

https://youtu.be/Gu77Vtja30c

Highland Piper. "Humanities vs. STEM." highlandpiper-sc.com, 2021, 

https://highlandpiper-sc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/humanities-stem-3.jpg

Kim, Irene. "How about both? Insight into the STEM vs. Humanities debate."

highschool.latimes.com, Los Angeles Times, 5 May 2020,

https://highschool.latimes.com/san-marino-high-school/how-about-both-insight-into-the-stem-vs-humanities-debate/

RSA. "RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube, uploaded by rsaorg, 14 Oct. 2010,

https://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution.” Cambridge University Press, 1959

UC Online. "TwoCultures pt3." Youtube, uploaded by UCOnline, 2 Apr. 2012

https://youtu.be/4FOEuxrwxd0

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in between.” vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121-125. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1577014?seq=1. Accessed 6 April 2023.