v104klqv@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Barbara S Abrahamer) (04/13/91)
Thought I'd add my two cents on this matter, since I'm female, and
having already acquired a degree in History, I'm about to complete
my engineering degree...
The liberal arts and the sciences require two almost completely
different ways of thinking. One is not "harder" or "easier"
than the other, and there's really no point in comparing them---
they complement each other. Success in one proves only that you
are capable of thinking in that manner. Someone here said that
they knew they'd be at the top of their class if they were majoring
in the liberal arts. Really?! Don't be so condescending.
In many ways, liberal arts require *more* "brain power" than
the sciences.
By the way, one of the reasons there are so few women in engineering
classes is that women are, for the most part, not encouraged to
pursue such a curriculum.
Barbaraal885@cwns9.ins.cwru.edu (Gerard Pinzone a.k.a. Ataru Moroboshi) (04/19/91)
[This is drifting away from soc.feminism relevance. I would suggest followups
to misc.education. - MHN]
The entire topic over which is a more difficult study, science or
humanities, is moot. It is impossible to argue over someone's personal
biases toward a particular interest of study.
However, I would like to bring up the main point that the current
programs that most universities offer seem to be prejudiced against
the science department. A liberal arts degree is alleged to make
a student "well-rounded", but it seems to do so without much
concern about basic ideas and concepts in the area of science and
nature.
An enginneing student, for example, receives a much larger background
in the humanities than a liberal arts student would in the sciences.
Check out the types of courses in your collage listings for each
degree requirements. In fact, it seems every year, new requirements
are being place upon students in engineering such as public speaking,
other writing courses, etc. to ever widen their scope of the world.
It is because of these problems that deprive students in these
liberal arts (a lot of them women) from obtaining a proper education.
=========Gerard Pinzone=======================gpinzone@george.poly.edu=========
_______ ________ ________ Just on the border of your waking mind
/ ___/ / _____/ / __ / There lies another time
/ ___/ / /____ / __ / Where darkness and light are one
/______/ /_______/ /__/ /__/ And as you tread the halls of sanity
East Coast Anime You feel so glad to be unable to go beyond
ELO: "Prologue" -=- Daicon IV I have a message from another time...Marla.Parker@Eng.Sun.COM (Marla Parker) (04/24/91)
In article <70635@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v104klqv@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu writes: >The liberal arts and the sciences require two almost completely >different ways of thinking. One is not "harder" or "easier" >than the other, and there's really no point in comparing them--- >they complement each other. Success in one proves only that you >are capable of thinking in that manner. Someone here said that >they knew they'd be at the top of their class if they were majoring >in the liberal arts. Really?! Don't be so condescending. >In many ways, liberal arts require *more* "brain power" than >the sciences. My thoughts exactly. And here is a short story of sexism that is directly related to these two different ways of thinking. My parents are both intelligent, educated people. My father has a PhD from Columbia in geology and my mother a Masters from Syracuse in Journalism. After I was born, my mom quit work for 25+ years. Now she is the general editor of technical publications in the geography & anthropology department at LSU. My father believes in Science, Logic, and Reason almost with the fanaticism of a convert, which makes sense because he rebelled against the Christianity of his upbringing and became an atheist (at 30!). I don't have any problem with his faith in the hard sciences. My problem is with his complete blindness to the intelligence of my mother. While he is proud of her degree, and respects advanced learning in any field, and if asked directly he would admit she is an intelligent woman, it has been clear to me from about the age of 11 that he thinks she is a complete and total idiot! I used to argue about it with him, during the years I was rebelling against/recovering from being a daddy's girl. He told me he tried to improve her (!) but after years of failure he had given up. There was no hope for her, she just couldn't reason well, she was too emotional, etc. It was really unbelievable. And shocking to me that someone so intelligent (my dad) could be so stupid! Isn't growing up fun. It really is humorous to look back on. After 30 years my mother finally left. They've been separated a year and should be filing a no-contest divorce shortly. My father had ample warning that she would leave him but he could not believe she could function on her own without him. He did not think she would be able to hold a job (she's been at LSU 3 years now, I think). Even though it is clear now that she can survive (even flourish) without him, I suspect that he still believes she is doing it by sheer luck. She's doing great; he's the one I'm worried about, but so far he's ok. Anyway, the relevance of this story to the subject at hand is that the belief that hard sciences are somehow harder (and thus superior?) to the liberal arts was one of the basic problems that lead to my parents' divorce. (Another was my mom's acquiescence to being treated like a doormat for a couple of decades, but that's another story.) >By the way, one of the reasons there are so few women in engineering >classes is that women are, for the most part, not encouraged to >pursue such a curriculum. That is why I am in Women And Mathematics, a national organization of female speakers who visit high schools (a) to encourage all students to continue taking math past the 10th grade and (b) to encourage the female students to consider technical fields as well as traditional female careers when planning their futures. SWE has similar programs in some parts of the country. -- Marla Parker (415) 336-2538 marla@eng.sun.com