Beyond Physics
Mr.Downs:
After my final-term exam, the school divided us into science part and humanities part. Do you Americans also do this? I hope not!
A few days ago, we formed a new class. Unfortunately, the students in science part, like me, will not have history, politics or geography classes any more, while the students in humanities part will never have the chance of learning science lessons. I don't think it is good for us, for what we need is not only scores. It was true I chose science. That's because I want to make some contribution in Physics. But it never means I'll give up humanities lessons or even never touch them! IT IS UNFAIR, I think. I want to know the world more completely.
It's the reality in China and I can not change it. Yet I still want it to be better. At least let me get some lessons about humanity. Or, maybe I can do it by myself
By the way, what do you think about the things that happened in North Korea these days?
Sincerely Evangeline
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Dear Evangeline,
I understand that you are disappointed about the fact that your choices for studying subjects in school will be more limited from now on. I realize that school systems throughout the world do things differently. The system you describe seems to put a high value on spending as much time as possible learning all that you can about a few specific areas, rather than trying to learn some things about a lot of different areas.
We have some schools in this country that really try and specialize in the way you describe. I think that can be very effective if you know exactly what you want to study and what you intend to do with it when you graduate.
Our school and probably most schools in America tend to expect students to study a lot of different things throughout their grade school years. This means that our students’ options to choose an area of focus remain open longer.
I am reminded of a former student of ours named David Siegel. David was the student at our school who first inspired me to keep a “blog”. He is working this summer for Google and is studying computer science AND philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. I am not sure what David would have chosen if we at MPA had required him to focus exclusively on one thing, as you are being expected to do.
But thanks to the internet, there is much that you can learn on your own about the humanities that will not be a part of your school program. And if you would like to communicate by email with some of our students here at MPA, I would be happy to introduce you to some who would be glad to be an email friend of yours.
Beyond that, perhaps you would be interested in seeing if your school would like to participate in a program called Challenge 20/20. You can read about that program at www.nais.org. It brings a school from the US together with a school from another country to try and develop solutions to some of the big problems facing us all.
Like the situation with North Korea. If you are asking me what I think, I would have to say that I worry about what North Korea is doing. Perhaps the missile testing is just a tactic to send some kind of message to neighboring countries and the US. I am afraid that the leaders of North Korea have closed themselves off from the rest of the world and do not necessarily see things as clearly as they should. Sometimes, ignorance can create a sense of fear.
On this subject, I think it is very good what is happening in your country now. There seems to be a real effort to reach out to the rest of the world and to try and work together. This is a very good thing, in my opinion. I am not sure that you are aware of why I came to your school, but our group was in China to meet and hire teachers who will come to our schools to teach the Chinese language to our students. Our trip was sponsored by a Chinese organization working for your government.
So your government wants to help our people learn your language so we can communicate with each other better. And when people can communicate better, they way you and I are right now, we can learn to understand and appreciate each other more easily. Then, perhaps, instead of sending messages with missile tests, we send them with emails. Or better still, in face to face meetings. Just like that nice talk we had at your school.
I hope to see you there again some day, or you here!
Sincerely,
Mike Downs