I don't wanna go on a rant here...
I was wadding through the farmville sea that is facebook when one of my friends (the husband of a co-worker) posted this: http://dimwell.net/2010/03/our-pale-blue-dot/ .
Take a second to go look at that, there's some stuff about global warming at the bottom you can ignore, the important part is the image and Carl Sagan's commentary on it.
I don't know about you but I was profoundly moved by it. I'm a history major, hopefully one day a historian, and as such my eyes are mostly turned inward, so to speak, surveying the glories we have created ourselves. At times it's hard to remember that I should also look outward as well to the wonders that surround us.
So flowery crap aside I decided that I would like a poster of this with Dr. Sagan's quote on it and assumed that the internet being what it is, I.E. populated by nerds, it was certain that someone could provide such a print for me. A quick Google search pointed me towards a astronomy/science website that was up to the task.
Now here is where the anger begins, this particular website had a comments section located below the order form, presumably where people would remark on the quality of the merchandise. Since I hadn't bought anything from this outfit and the website itself looked a little shoddy I decided to read a few of the comments. Scrolling down I discovered that it was mostly just a chat forum for the people who used the website and what I read immediately sent me into full blown NERD RAGE.
The central idea of the discussion being held was simple: if you aren't a science's graduate you can't truly appreciate this kind of beauty. It is a notion that absolutely blinded me with anger. Since I don't have an aptitude for mathematics I'm incapable of appreciating the beauty of the universe? Really guys? Here I am, so moved by an astronomers words that I want to get something to remind myself of them for years to come, and I find a stream of vitriol directed at my entire discipline
This growing antagonism between the two sides of academia really concerns me. Why is it necessary? Why can't both sides recognize that they are both required for human advancement. I try very hard at the math and science I take, not because it is required but because I'm a strong believer that a degree means you have a well rounded education. All to often I hear non-majors complain about having to take a "useless" history course. What they fail to realize is how invaluable those classes are for providing them with some much needed perspective, showing the terrible things that have been done with technology. Just as the view of the cosmos provides me with the perspective on humanities place in the grand scheme of things.
I guess I'm just a relic of a by-gone era when becoming a college graduate meant you were an EDUCATED person, not merely a trained one...recently it's become known that UAH is going to swap it's Lit courses for "Lit for Majors/Lit for Humanities/Lit for Sciences" , ensuring that no one takes a "useless" course. There is also rumbling of HY101/102 being replaced with a single "World History" course for non-majors and creating a special "humanities" math...
"Education is the knowledge of how to use the whole of oneself. Many men use but one or two faculties out of the score with which they are endowed. A man is educated who knows how to make tool of every faculty--how to open it, how to keep it sharp, and how to apply it to all practical purposes."
-Henry Ward Beecher