Editorial: The arts and sciences need to put aside their differences to fight defunding

The+arts+and+sciences+are+represented+above%2C+juxtaposed+on+a+backdrop+of+all+the+money+were+not+going++to+get+unless+we+put+aside+our+perceived+differences+and+work+together+to+expand+the+scope+of+human+knowledge.+

The arts and sciences are represented above, juxtaposed on a backdrop of all the money we’re not going to get unless we put aside our perceived differences and work together to expand the scope of human knowledge.

Fuzzy vs. techie. Heart vs. brain. Arts vs. sciences.

At Harker, we tend to see the arts and sciences as at odds, or at least as incompatible. How many times have you heard a group of coders chuckling over the perceived uselessness of an art degree, or a gaggle at the Artstravaganza grumbling at perceived discrepancies in finding allocations?

This isn’t to say the arts and sciences are at war. At worst, it’s a rivalry, but more often just a comfortable separation. We wall ourselves away at our separate symposiums, and while there are the unusual individuals who bridge the gap (the coder who reads Voltaire or the artist researching biology), they are just that – unusual.

This also isn’t to say that the dichotomy of arts and sciences is a uniquely Harker problem. Schools reflect the society that surround them, and this attitude continues into collegiate studies and the working world.

We’re not talking about how scientists need to value art to live a fulfilling life, or how we’re switching our “STEM” section to “STEAM” (we’re not, but check out A&E), or how we need to actively bridge the gap between art and science. Our point is that the gap is an illusion.

Art and science are ultimately the same; they are both ways of expanding the horizons of human knowledge. A painter and a researcher are both searching for truth, with different methods. Inquiry, exploration, insight: these are concepts that drive all of us, whether we’re rehearsing for the musical in Patil or studying machine learning in Nichols.

Infighting isn’t just pointless, it’s dangerous. Want more evidence that the arts and sciences are essentially equivalent? When funding gets cut, the guillotine falls on the sciences and the arts with equal (violence). Trump’s budget proposals have included eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Also lined into the budget were significant slashes to the Environment Protection Agency and NASA’s earth science division.

We’re all in this together, which is to say we’re getting defunded together.

To intellectual explorers, regardless of discipline, this is a call to arms. We can either go down separately, still squabbling, or band together and fight. Your move.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 28, 2017.