science & tech. vs arts & humanities (please rate my AOI)
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27 Oct 2009, 18:58
You may just rate my AOI with a # without explanation if thats easy, I know there are spelling errors.
"Since science and technology are becoming more and more essential to modern society, schools should devote more time
to teaching science and technology and less to teaching the arts and humanities."
The author of this argument suggests that schools should devote more time to teaching science and technology and less to arts and humanities as science are technology are becoming more essential to modern society. This argument is not totally convincing because arts and humanities form the basis for the development of science and technology and for the reasons detailed below.
Firstly, it is to be noted that arts and humanities long existed even before science and technoloy came into being. For example, without the art of hunting animals, finding edible plants or cooking, mankind would never have come to a stage where he can focus on investing his time in researching nature and documenting science or in creating technology. It is the very nature of the arts and humanities such as literature, philosophy etc., teach humans on how to subsist on earth that makes them important. Mankind can live without science and techonology. but cannot suvive without the arts or humanities.
Secondly, if more of science and technology is taught at school with less focus on arts and humanities, humans will not be humane, the basic philosophy of brotherhood may no longer exist and there could be a proliferation of nuclear weapons with increasing technology and scientific knowledge, which may lead to a war of the worlds as no nation or leader would be in a position to make decisions that are harmless to society.
Furthermore, if only sciene and technology is given importance, people working in these areas would not find any events that would provide them entertain during thier free time , since there would be less or no artists that could perform any sort or art, for example music, painting, stage play etc.,, there would not be much entertainment events availble that can cater to the relaxation needs of the humans.
Although it appears that the author's conclusion to teach more of science and technology at schools is somewhat appealing and intriguing, for the reasons mentioned above, it is not a good idea and both the departments of science & technology and arts and humanities should be given equal importance at teaching institutes.