Week 1- Two cultures

In his work C.P. snow voices his opinions on the way universities educate their students so specifically. He felt that a broader education can no longer be achieved and criticized this university process. Universities have caused a divide between the arts and sciences, it is all too observable at UCLA. I am a psychobiology major and it has been almost a year since I have found myself in south campus. This social an physical divide of our campus causes people to spend the majority of their time with people of similar studies and interests. Brockman discusses that he would like to see more of a conversation between intellectuals and scientists. The boundaries that Universities put up between these two cultures is part of the reason there is such a divide.



Can this separation be completely avoided? Once someone is an undergraduate student they find themselves with such little time to learn anything other than the area that they have chosen to pursue. Personally being an athlete in a science major I find myself with almost no free time at all. The culture of this country has made scholarship so competitive, whether it is graduate school or professional jobs that taking the time to expand your mind to things that might not be necessary down the road almost seem like a waste of time. In this regard I agree with C.P. snow that this process could be irreversible.

The United States is such a competitive environment that college itself has turned from its original purpose to further the education of people for the purpose of learning and expanding their mind into a tool for one to add to his or her resume and make them more appealing for a job later in life. 

There is so much competition for jobs and school tuition is so high that it is even irresponsible for some people to pursue a college degree in something that perhaps doesn't have promise of a high salary. There are many barriers keeping two cultures from bridging together. We see two cultures in many way, those who can afford college and those who cannot.



Scared straight out of college



Resources:


Brockman, John. The Third Culture. N.p.: n.p., 1995. Print.

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.

Academy EBriefings. A Dangerous Divide. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016

http://livelighter.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/stressed-student.jpg

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/q35d99/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-stay-out-of-school