Shall We Follow Our Inclination for Either Liberal Arts or Sciences and Reap the Benefits of Early Specialisation? Which one Is offering the Best Methodology for Our Learning?

Shall we follow our inclination for either liberal arts or sciences and reap the benefits of early specialisation? Which one is offering the best methodology for our learning?

At school we choose subjects we like and we are interested in or we feel we have a predisposition for. However, too often and too early students tend to believe that they have a bias for either qualitative or quantitative subjects and focus their learning too much in one of the two areas. Also, in our modern, complex and competitive society there is a bias for early specialisation. Sometimes we confuse knowledge with learning process. In fact the learning is not only related to the deep knowledge of a specific subject or technique but in general through a combination of qualitative and scientific studies we learn to better understand the other individuals' behaviours and ourselves. We are all complex people whose behaviour is a combination of many factors, but also the collective behaviour that we call "the society" is not following a simple well identifiable path. The functioning of both individuals and societies is based on a combination of inputs coming from different leaning ways and areas of knowledge. Societies need both poets and scientists, but also we as individuals need exposure to both literature and science to well navigate our personal lives and ultimately well perform any job or profession we choose.

I felt I had a strong interest for sciences and focused my studies on Maths, Physics and Economics. Through the rigor and the challenge of Maths exercises, I have learned to be concrete, look immediately for the key variables in a problem and still focus on all the small details: any small mistake, a change in the sign, etc could lead to the wrong answer. This is helping me to identify the key concept in a magazine article and to have a methodological approach, which could help me to tackle different problems in life. Maths is teaching you that a problem, which seems very complicated can be simplified and a solution can be found. Just think of the pleasure to solve and simplify a two line long equation with a simple x equal to a number.

However, I learn a lot from my literature class when we studied "the concept of madness and authority" reading "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" and other books. We had a very active debate in the class about how madness could be a relative concept influenced by the authority bias to decide what is sane or insane and ultimately acceptable according to the society moral and rules at a specific time in history. In writing an essay on this topic and during the class debates I learned that often a position we take is not simply right or wrong but it is a result of the analysis of each individual who uses its own metrics, personal bias and background to weigh different tangible and intangible variables. I believe that literature helps you to develop certain feelings,