Academia vs. Creativity: What is more important?

[shazzzzzz]

This is something that is always on my mind, why do people, or we as a society place an emphasis on academic or scientific subjects like Maths, Physic etc. but belittle creative or more physical subjects such as Art, Dance, Sports?

I'm of the opinion that both are EQUALLY important in life, and that in the real world none of these subjects or characteristics work without the other; you're unable to properly understand movement in sports if you don't have a bare minimum understanding of physics and that without creative thinking a lot of the worlds scientific and technological advances would be non-existent.

It always angers me when people say 'it's alright if you're not good at art or sports, some people are more equipped for those activities' but 'you're stupid and unintelligent if you're unable to properly grasp maths'. Aren't we all intelligent in our own ways and can't we appreciate that, instead of demeaning others?

What's you're take on this matter?

[pi]

My school, a govt school, put a pretty big emphasis on sport. We had compulsory weekly sport all the way up until the end of Year 12 and we were encouraged to get involved in sporting teams and House events. However, I cannot speak for other schools though in this regard.

As for whether non-STEM (non-science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and STEM should be equal, I disagree. I personally wouldn't want to spend any time in a drama or arts class, but that's not because I disrespect those areas, it's just that I'm not good at them and don't really care as a result. People should choose for themselves how highly they value each of STEM and non-STEM.

Unfortunately the ATAR tends to reward students who are good in STEM rather than those who are not. Perhaps this is due to perceived benefits to society from people who do STEM vs those who do non-STEM (eg. perceived societal benefits of someone being an engineer vs a historian, or a doctor vs a librarian, or a neuroscientist vs a stage actor), perhaps not. I think it's worth discussing this in greater depth and I'm interested to see people's opinions on this. And this ties into your comments about the word "intelligence". Personally, I don't see "intelligence" as a particularly useful word to use. I prefer to look at people's strengths and weaknesses. If someone is a great actor and can help society by bringing joy to people, good for them. If someone is a great scientist and can help society by advancing research, good for them. As long as you like what you do and it makes some positive contribution to society, I'm in favour of it.

I think you'll find people that belittle other non-STEM areas tend to be a bit insecure about themselves and generally aren't the most pleasant of folk.

[shazzzzzz]

I see where you're coming from, I like your point of looking at peoples strengths/weaknesses rather than their intelligence (I may take that view on) for me I believe there are different types of 'intelligence', some are are intelligent in literature or maths while others are more skilled in understanding people or being able to communicate and I think that we all need to be, at some minor level, skilled in all of these areas to live a good life.

While you may not be interested in art class, there are others who are not interested in maths or science but why are they looked down on (well I know why but it just seems unfair)? I understand doctors and scientists do provide a more necessary benefit to society but what would society be if we all gave up our careers to become doctors/scientists, if the creative industry just ceased to exist?

I think the stem field and related areas help us to live and understand how we live but I think the arts and such provides us a reason to live

[shazzzzzz]

If anyone has a different opinion I'd like to hear it!

[Complex]

Lawyers/Doctors/Engineers/Scientists are actively contributing something important to society. Without any of those, society wouldn't function to a high degree of efficiency. On the other hand actors/atheletes/historians do not actively contribute to keep society running. Our country wouldn't collapse if all historians decided to stop investigating how in 1569 good old Johnny assasinated another Johnny, our society however would collapse if all doctors went on strike.

The bottom line is if our creative industry disappeared then society would still function, thats not the case with the professions i first introduced.

[FallingStar]

You may argue that the creative industry was to disappear, then we would then our society would still function. Whilst that may be true in some aspects, I really don't think people are going to give up consuming creativity. To make my point clear I would like to ask you some questions:

Have you:

• listened to and enjoyed music?
• been to an art gallery?
• played a video game?
• Seen a movie?

If you have, you are actually the consumer of the creative industry. Yes, you may be able to argue that you (or society) can do without these. There is, however one area of the creative industry that we would probably never be able to give up. It is design.

Pretty much everything you encounter in life have been design at some stage: from covers of your favourite book to the cover of academic journals, from the chair you sit on to the couch you lie on watching TV, from the desk you study on to the pens you write with. Just about any everyday object that you can think of.

The design thinking process, which allows one to come up with creative ideas. Often, it ends up with something useful or convenient to our society. Maybe, a designer may able to solve the problems of current everyday objects. They are also improve objects in our lives, for example, making chairs and desks more ergonomic.

To make these happen however, we will need engineers and STEM fields. In the real world, designers, whether it be architect or industrial designer, work with engineers to make improve the particular product. This process is how stuff come from the designer's desk tot he real world.

Therefore, designers and academics are just as important as one another. Without designer, we may have persistent problems of everyday objects. Without engineers working with designer, we would not have these idea for a better product come into our reality. So we should never belittle people just because of what they do. They all have a role to play in our society.

[shazzzzzz]

Lawyers/Doctors/Engineers/Scientists are actively contributing something important to society. Without any of those, society wouldn't function to a high degree of efficiency. On the other hand actors/atheletes/historians do not actively contribute to keep society running. Our country wouldn't collapse if all historians decided to stop investigating how in 1569 good old Johnny assasinated another Johnny, our society however would collapse if all doctors went on strike.

I do agree that STEM fields are societal necessity but to focus on your example of historians, history is simply the record of past events so that would mean all records of any scientific discovery would be a type of history, would it not? and I'm pretty sure if scientists today did not have a 'history' of past scientists they would probably not be where they are today. While some events do hold more importance than others - the discovery of DNA is way more revolutionary than the creation of memes - however I think both things provide us an understanding of society and who we are, (modern society rn LOVES memes and maybe future historians will look back and wonder why)

And maybe present society wouldn't have an instantaneous economic collapse but I assure you that if all the historic records on the world disappeared and every historian quit their jobs our future would be very dubious

I'll leave you with a quote maybe by George Santayana - Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

[shazzzzzz]

You may argue that the creative industry was to disappear, then we would then our society would still function. Whilst that may be true in some aspects, I really don't think people are going to give up consuming creativity. To make my point clear I would like to ask you some questions:

Have you:

• listened to and enjoyed music?
• been to an art gallery?
• played a video game?
• Seen a movie?

If you have, you are actually the consumer of the creative industry. Yes, you may be able to argue that you (or society) can do without these. There is, however one area of the creative industry that we would probably never be able to give up. It is design.

Pretty much everything you encounter in life have been design at some stage: from covers of your favourite book to the cover of academic journals, from the chair you sit on to the couch you lie on watching TV, from the desk you study on to the pens you write with. Just about any everyday object that you can think of.

The design thinking process, which allows one to come up with creative ideas. Often, it ends up with something useful or convenient to our society. Maybe, a designer may able to solve the problems of current everyday objects. They are also improve objects in our lives, for example, making chairs and desks more ergonomic.

To make these happen however, we will need engineers and STEM fields. In the real world, designers, whether it be architect or industrial designer, work with engineers to make improve the particular product. This process is how stuff come from the designer's desk to the real world.

Therefore, designers and academics are just as important as one another. Without designer, we may have persistent problems of everyday objects. Without engineers working with designer, we would not have these idea for a better product come into our reality. So we should never belittle people just because of what they do. They all have a role to play in our society.

What you have said, every exact word, is my whole thought process, I completely agree with you and have been waiting for someone to say this. I having nothing more to add except you have taken the words right out of my mouth

[brenden]

Lawyers/Doctors/Engineers/Scientists are actively contributing something important to society. Without any of those, society wouldn't function to a high degree of efficiency. On the other hand actors/atheletes/historians do not actively contribute to keep society running. Our country wouldn't collapse if all historians decided to stop investigating how in 1569 good old Johnny assasinated another Johnny, our society however would collapse if all doctors went on strike.

The bottom line is if our creative industry disappeared then society would still function, thats not the case with the professions i first introduced.

If doctors didn't exist, people would be killed by illness. If Art didn't exist, people would be killed by themselves. Same same

[pi]

If doctors didn't exist, people would be killed by illness. If Art didn't exist, people would be killed by themselves. Same same

Care to elaborate? Also, comparing a single profession to a field of professions is a tad unfair

The bottom line is if our creative industry disappeared then society would still function, thats not the case with the professions i first introduced.

I don't think that's true. I can't imagine a world without "creative industry". Everything we see and use has some creative component to it. Remove it immediately and sure, society could manage, but after some time (I'd say "days") the world would become a very dull place. I'd like to think we all work together for the betterment of each other.