Humans are natural learners.
Acknowledged or not, everyone dabbles in music and math — appreciates daylight and a building that doesn’t collapse. In order to appreciate those things, however, you don’t need to be a musician, mathematician, environmental scientist or architect. We are free to enjoy the world just as it is.
The liberal arts curriculum is not intended to force students into classes to cause discomfort, nor is the purpose to humble students in subjects they perform poorly in — although that may feel like the case. The purpose of taking classes outside of a student's major is founded on a principle: Knowledge refines our engagement with the world, revealing breadth and depth to life.
At the university level, students’ interests are compartmentalized into classes and majors. Our “holistic” engagement with the world can seem limited.
The Echo Editorial Board believes life offers more than our interests. We limit ourselves when we stay within the confines of our majors, allowing our engagement with others and the world to be hindered.
Jon Denning, department co-chair and associate professor of computer science & engineering, studied digital art and how artists create content.
Denning believes the consequences of a person limiting himself to only his interests would be a very, very narrow life.
“I mean, why are there explorers?” he asked. “Why are there mathematical theoreticians? Why are there the great Picassos and Mozarts? I mean, they excelled in their areas, but if they only spent time in that space, then I think that they would be missing out on what God has created here, they'd be missing a huge component of what it means to be human.”
He said you may be excellent at what you are doing. However, if all you do is produce in one area, you’re just like a machine, even if it is just art. Experiencing something outside your area of expertise can bring inspiration.
Denning said STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and the arts differ in their structure. In order for STEM to work, it’s very objective and highly structured. STEM has either one correct answer or multiple, but it’s clear the answer is correct.
When it comes to art, he explained, it’s highly subjective. Even trying to answer the question “What is art?” is a massive undertaking.
“I think in order for STEM to work, it needs to be objective,” Denning said. “For art to work, it needs to be subjective. I think that that's where the distinction would lie, but there is a huge overlap still.”
Denning said there is a very foundational and philosophical approach to education at Taylor with the understanding God created everything. There is beauty, goodness and truth in all these things.
Hannah Richardson is assistant professor of art education and pre-art therapy.
She recognizes discomfort as an opportunity to learn about ourselves — specifically when we dislike certain subjects — asking if it’s our attitude, the Holy Spirit convicting us or perhaps because we're trying something for the first time.
“I do think that there's quite a bit of loss to understanding the breadth of who God is when we don't actually use our brains fully,” Richardson said.
She explained we limit ourselves and the way we think God perceives us when we believe God has only made us for a certain major, which could be dangerous.
Scott Gaier is director of the Academic Enrichment Center. He is also professor of higher education and head of the Foundations of Christian Liberal Arts course.
He believes living in a world of ideas, we find a wholeness for ourselves when we learn.
“We experience God in deeper ways as we can continue to think more thoroughly, more wholly, more inclusively in the sense of all imposition, right?” Gaier said. “That if I am not engaging the world the way a musician would, I'm missing some things and if I don't engage the world, the way a mathematician would, I'm missing some things.”
He explained the biggest consequence of not engaging the world is that we are left incomplete and ignorant.
The point isn’t for fine arts and STEM students to give up their passions. The point is to be open to learning about others and the world, and that starts with putting ourselves aside.
