The Two Cultures

Hello! My name is Abygayle, and I’m a first year business-econ major! Personally, I can resonate with Snow’s complex separation of two cultures. This week's materials have provided me insight into why I've found myself drawn more towards art and literary humanities than towards scientific studies within my education. The two cultures idea displays the barrier between humanities and sciences, and why this separation is potentially negative to society. Snow’s ideology argues that this cultural divide is a setback in American educational society, and further implies that a middle-ground or third culture would bridge these disparities. In the “Changing Education Paradigms” video from this week, they highlighted how American education systems are outdated, in the sense that many teaching methodologies and classroom expectations were established for a different, expired cultural period. The education system has been a significant reason why there is such polarization between the two cultures. Additionally, technology, which has periodically been an underutilized aspect of education, is a piece of the third culture that furthers the connection between the arts and sciences.

Throughout my education today, I still see and experience evident divides of these two cultures. Our campus is precisely divided based on Snow’s idea of two cultures, as north campus represents humanity and art based studies, and south campus represents scientific studies. Additionally, humanity and art based majors require minimal understanding of scientific principles, and vise-versa.

Snow argues that society will thrive with less polarization of the two cultures and a connected third culture that incorporates aspects of both disciplines. This proposal has made me aware of the benefits of the interconnectedness of art and science, as well as evaluate how I integrate these cultures to further develop my education!