[ale] OT: Music Majors & Math (was Comcast speeds)

[Jim Philips]

On Wednesday 04 April 2007 08:33:16 am Jeff Lightner wrote:
> Too bad it is seen as "either/or" rather than both.  When I was in
> school I had a heavy emphasis on math/science but at least through 8th
> grade they also had me doing music and art classes.   Oddly enough in
> later science classes drawing what one saw what rather an important
> skill.
>
> I had to laugh at the comment about lack of creativity and innovative
> thinking.   Those that are ardent right wingers do NOT want creativity
> and innovative thinking - they simply want you to believe what they do
> because they "know" they are right.
>
> Having said that I do think while "testing" may not be a perfect measure
> of effective education it is the only quantifiable one.   Resistance to
> testing in my mind comes from out of control educators who have decided
> it is more important that they get theirs than it is to actually do the
> jobs for which they were hired.
>
> End of rant.

This segregation of disciplines is just silly and is a product of our modern 
educational system that is eager to divide disciplines into practical 
and...well, practically useless (from their point of view). One of my 
favorite stories is how a couple of classical musicians, working initially in 
spare closets, creamed the competition when it came to creating the first 
commercially practical color film for cameras.

Read about it here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eastman/peopleevents/pande19.html

And then there was the Russian composer, Borodin, who was also a respected 
chemist. 
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