Arts students have to go through a variety of prejudices ranging form "You want to get married after college?" to "You didn't get through to the sciences or what?".
People supposedly have a hard time digesting the idea that a person with arts can be an intelligent person with some legitimate goal in life. Last week, I had relatives come over who did not hide their surprise at my opting for arts for my college education. They even asked my 12th grade marks commenting "Marks to theek the fir B.Tech kyun nahin liya?" (Your marks are fine. Why didn't you opt for B.Tech.)
Comments like this do not fail to annoy me. It is not a secret that most Indians prefer their children to study sciences even if they don't get jobs. After all it is SCIENCE with all those wonderful graphs and integrals and diagrams of the digestive system. Not taking any interest in studying sciences, or commerce is some families, is thought of as a declining interest in education. If someone desires on becoming an IAS officer or giving any other competetive exam after graduation....or being a teacher, humanities still gets some approval. Otherwise, people prefer science as it will guarantee respect. Or maybe an MCA or an MBA.
As if making your parents understand your logic behind opting arts wasn't hard enough already.
Arts students are considered to be the dumbest species of students by many, many people. We are thought of as owners of immense freedom, timelessness..basically time wasting people. Yes we do not study all year long except for exams, but students of other fields are said to do the same. Okay we don't have sums to solve or theories to contradict, but we do have to understand logics that change every 10 years and learn quotes by people whose name many of our colleagues don't know.
Humanities gives you so many options! it has endless opportunities, infinite options! For Marx's sake students of other fields end up doing some course in humanities because it is rewarding.
Yes, maybe our education is the easiest in terms of level of toughness, but we too are occasionally forced to pull our hair out because of a certain Mr. Marx and his counterparts.
It is also true that many of us take up arts for the laughs and later join family businesses or get married but humanities gives everyone a lot of the much required exposure and common sense to lead our lives. And there are subjects like Maths and Economics in humanities so your argument is invalid.
We know how the world works, not in the sense of its molecular or anatomical configurations but the literal way. Psychology, Sociology, Political Sciences, Languages, all come under arts. Try living without those. We need to know the society we live in, the people who make it up, the reason why it is so.
I do not wish to say that Humanities is the only best option or to force you to take it or something. All i want is for you to realise that it is just as important a subject and cannot be, WILL not be put down. and after all, It does not matter what subject you study. All that matters is intelligence and brilliance in whatever you do.
Yeah well thats that. Don't be butthurt.
Yeah well thats that. Don't be butthurt.
