My Subject is Better Than Yours
By Sarah Pinkerton
Monday 2nd November 2009
Monday 2nd November 2009
I’ve experienced my fair share of condescending put-downs based on the fact that I’m studying English and Psychology. When I mention English, people assume I want to be a teacher. When I mention Psychology, people claim it’s merely a “soft science.” Perhaps this is simply a part of human nature, this ribbing and mocking, but I find it pretty obnoxious.
Putting down someone’s field of study simply because it doesn’t align with one’s own is ridiculous. Doing so does not make a person look more intelligent, successful, or confident, it simply makes him or her look closed-minded.
During breakfast one day, I was discussing modules with two friends, one who studies Geology, and the other of whom is studying Philosophy and History. The Geology major was lamenting that she had many more in-class hours than either myself or my Philosophy-major friend, yet added, “But at least when I graduate my degree will be real!”
Besides ignoring the fact that English and Philosophy majors must put in countless hours of work outside of class, my friend encapsulated the issue of academic snobbery very neatly. Many people feel their subjects are more difficult and more relevant than anyone else’s. While I’ve personally found that those studying Maths and Science tend to be the most vocal about this opinion, it certainly comes from all directions. I’ve also heard these sorts of comments from those studying the Humanities— academics are inherently fond of their own subjects, and it’s natural that they’d react when provoked. However, the fact that they get provoked at all is what perpetuates this cycle of ignorance and ill will. Insulting someone’s course of study is tantamount to insulting a person’s core identity.
I’m sure that some of this comes from societal and parental pressure. People might want to feel respected or impress their parents or earn money or something else in-between. I have a few friends back home who started at university thinking they would go into Medicine, and at different points many of them admitted it wasn’t because they enjoyed it. One wanted to please her parents, while another liked the idea of such a respectable, lucrative career. All of my friends who didn’t genuinely love the subject have since switched majors, and the ones who enjoy it are still glad they’re studying it.
This isn’t to say that Science and the Humanities are naturally at odds. But every department feels that their subject is the most important, and doubling-up can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Yet people yield the best results when they are invested in what they are working on. More often than not, the way to achieve something great is to love the act that gets you to the end goal, even if that means constantly defending your choices to everyone around you.
Honestly? I like to argue. Love it, in fact. So if someone insults my chosen field, then yes, I’m going to debate the issue. I might even resort to the tried-and-true, “Well at least I understand how to communicate and articulate my arguments!” which is little better than a personal attack. The same can be said of “Well at least I’ll acquire a skill set that will be useful for my future career.” In these sorts of faux-debates, everything degenerates really quickly— as soon as people start to feel attacked. Doing what you love (paycheck be damned?) is brave, and it’s not something that should be ridiculed.
Like anywhere else, assumptions about subjects exist at St. Andrews, like the idea that all American students are studying IR, or that people only study Art History to look at pretty pictures. I don’t honestly think this sort of thing is going to stop any time soon, not so long as humans are human. People tend to label each other according to different subjects, characters, and callings. I’m sure this tendency was a vital step in the evolutionary process. So, no, I don’t think it will stop; I just think it’s obnoxious.
Plenty of people scoff about other subjects being unnecessary, but my Philosophy-major friend and I eventually boiled down quite neatly: Without Maths and Science, we wouldn’t have satellite television. Without the Humanities, we would have nothing to watch.v
Putting down someone’s field of study simply because it doesn’t align with one’s own is ridiculous. Doing so does not make a person look more intelligent, successful, or confident, it simply makes him or her look closed-minded.
During breakfast one day, I was discussing modules with two friends, one who studies Geology, and the other of whom is studying Philosophy and History. The Geology major was lamenting that she had many more in-class hours than either myself or my Philosophy-major friend, yet added, “But at least when I graduate my degree will be real!”
Besides ignoring the fact that English and Philosophy majors must put in countless hours of work outside of class, my friend encapsulated the issue of academic snobbery very neatly. Many people feel their subjects are more difficult and more relevant than anyone else’s. While I’ve personally found that those studying Maths and Science tend to be the most vocal about this opinion, it certainly comes from all directions. I’ve also heard these sorts of comments from those studying the Humanities— academics are inherently fond of their own subjects, and it’s natural that they’d react when provoked. However, the fact that they get provoked at all is what perpetuates this cycle of ignorance and ill will. Insulting someone’s course of study is tantamount to insulting a person’s core identity.
I’m sure that some of this comes from societal and parental pressure. People might want to feel respected or impress their parents or earn money or something else in-between. I have a few friends back home who started at university thinking they would go into Medicine, and at different points many of them admitted it wasn’t because they enjoyed it. One wanted to please her parents, while another liked the idea of such a respectable, lucrative career. All of my friends who didn’t genuinely love the subject have since switched majors, and the ones who enjoy it are still glad they’re studying it.
This isn’t to say that Science and the Humanities are naturally at odds. But every department feels that their subject is the most important, and doubling-up can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Yet people yield the best results when they are invested in what they are working on. More often than not, the way to achieve something great is to love the act that gets you to the end goal, even if that means constantly defending your choices to everyone around you.
Honestly? I like to argue. Love it, in fact. So if someone insults my chosen field, then yes, I’m going to debate the issue. I might even resort to the tried-and-true, “Well at least I understand how to communicate and articulate my arguments!” which is little better than a personal attack. The same can be said of “Well at least I’ll acquire a skill set that will be useful for my future career.” In these sorts of faux-debates, everything degenerates really quickly— as soon as people start to feel attacked. Doing what you love (paycheck be damned?) is brave, and it’s not something that should be ridiculed.
Like anywhere else, assumptions about subjects exist at St. Andrews, like the idea that all American students are studying IR, or that people only study Art History to look at pretty pictures. I don’t honestly think this sort of thing is going to stop any time soon, not so long as humans are human. People tend to label each other according to different subjects, characters, and callings. I’m sure this tendency was a vital step in the evolutionary process. So, no, I don’t think it will stop; I just think it’s obnoxious.
Plenty of people scoff about other subjects being unnecessary, but my Philosophy-major friend and I eventually boiled down quite neatly: Without Maths and Science, we wouldn’t have satellite television. Without the Humanities, we would have nothing to watch.v