“Tara, lipat na lang tayo sa CLA. Mas madali naman diyan eh.”
(Let’s just shift to CLA. It’s easier there.)
This is one of the most common lines I’ve heard from different engineering students when I was a frosh—even until now. As engineering students, we are required to take general math classes such as differential calculus, integral calculus, and engineering algebra that are prerequisites to our respective majors. When I took these classes, I found it quite challenging yet manageable since I already had some background on basic calculus. As the lessons were getting harder every week, I observed that as some of my classmates became exhausted from the subjects, they would jokingly say, “Lipat na nga ako sa liberal arts. Makaka–DL naman ako.”
Not everyone has the same level of intelligence and pace in learning complex math problems. Students are naturally gifted in different fields, some students are hardworking enough to achieve the grades that they want, and some students are just unmotivated and do not care about what they are learning. These students who think that taking a liberal arts degree is easier than taking an engineering degree seem to have a superiority complex—thinking that engineering is somehow “more meritorious” than a liberal arts course, only because it has complicated science and math subjects.
This thought infuriates me as I have a lot of friends from the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) who are struggling with their majors. With this kind of mindset, I keep asking whether or not these people understand the reason why these fields are different. Surviving a basic calculus class does not equate to acing the production of a short film and vice versa. What’s wrong is comparison should be between two alike things, and not those that are not the same.
It is also ironic how those with this link of thinking are the ones who are ignorant over social issues. For example, I hear students in some of my classes say the n-word and think it is “cool” even if they are not from the black community. I even hear some students poking fun and joking about autism and other mental conditions with their friends. Again, I believe that beyond lack of regard for liberal arts degrees and courses, these peers of mine lack understanding. They either have not fully grasped the essence of the liberal arts or lack in making an effort to educate themselves further.
Last December 2018, I read a DLSU Freedom Wall post that shared the same sentiments as me on this matter. Another engineering student shared their experience taking CLA classes like HUMAART and GREATWK. They wrote that their admiration for these classes grew and they learned lessons that were not typically taught in an engineering class. As a student who majors in chemical engineering, I envy liberal arts students for taking classes that explore topics on gender studies, television production, and radio production. Regardless of what course we all take, there are some life lessons that are learned outside our classroom walls.
The student also mentioned in the post, “Engineering may be essential to keep us alive, but the liberal arts is what gives us the reason to be alive.” When I read this line, it made me realize the relation between these two very different fields. Engineering is an objective-focused discipline that finds solutions to different problems, while the liberal arts is a subjective-focused discipline that finds the reason behind these solutions. It is a matter of studying and communicating these concepts from the science and humanities field to people who do not completely understand them.
It is not about picking which course is easier to take. Rather it is about picking which course you are passionate about and content with. We should not discredit or underestimate others. Whether one is a STEM or humanities major, this should not matter. We should not debate which course is more superior than the other. Instead we should work together and tackle issues from different perspectives to find innovative ways in solving issues. There is no point of questioning which is “superior” between these two complex fields if you clearly just want to go the easy way.
