I spent most of today resting as well, getting to know Taiwanese television, and calling home. My grandma had brought over some Taiwanese drinks (she had noticed my liking for Sarsparilla). I was feeling much better, and for lunch, we (my second aunt, and Sophia) went to a nearby restaurant. They'd never been there before, but thought it would be neat to try it out!
The menu had a lot of variety, everything from personal hotpot, pasta, noodles, various appetizers, as well as some self-serve buffet food and salad. Most memorable though was the drinks - they had many types of teas, hot and cold. Whenever I have a sore throat, one of my first remedies is peppermint tea, but I don't think I've ever had peppermint tea as good as theirs.
There's not too much else I remember about today, so I'll move on to a topic I've been meaning to write about (which was originally tagged onto Day 34's post, but decided that today's post would have more space). As any student, conversations seem to always - at some point - lead, or start, with the question, "what are you studying?" As a student of the Arts & Sciences Programme at McMaster - explaining my program (or whatever I'm doing) has never been easy. This challenge is even more difficult with a) a language barrier (how to say interdisciplinary, or inquiry, in Taiwanese?) and b) a lack of similar programs in Taiwan.
In fact, the difficulty (or impossibleness) of forming a clear explanation of Artsci is directly in our oath - as well as the vow to keep on trying. And through the months (so far), I've tried - with family, friends, teachers, loveboaters, relatives, students in other programs, church members - everyone... and I'm still struggling. But here are some things to know about Arts & Sciences at McMaster (the link will take you to our homepage that will give you the encyclopedic definition of Artsci. But of course, that's not good enough.)
Key word: Interdisciplinary. This is what the program is about. Combining cultures, mixing together the disciplines that have been so divided. "We don't have a faculty". Our professors come from departments all over the school, all from different areas of expertise and experience. Sure, we take arts/philosophy/writing based courses, and we also do maths/economics/sciences, but it's more than a double major. Several of our courses are interdisciplinary in nature: more "artsy" courses like Western Civilization and Modern Western Thought feature extensive discussion on the philosophy and development of science, and scientific reasoning, while the more "sciency" courses like calculus feature a society aspect that also involves an essay and presentation.
The general thought process of a scientist and the articles he/she writes is very different from someone in the humanities, or social scientist, writing an analysis or report. Minds, writing styles, are geared towards different groups of people, and in my opinion, people lose access to fields outside their own. Artsci is about appreciating, and understanding various fields and disciplines - in hopes of bridging new connections and perhaps, most of all, learning as much as we can. Thankfully, we have some of the most passionate teachers to satisfy that desire.
Often enough, some people argue that taking a wide variety of subjects is what high school is about - not university, but I feel that a) high school isn't interdisciplinary, and b) interdisciplinary education at the university level goes far beyond the level of education at high school. I don't want to dive into the issue about education reform (though that's something I am slowly but surely becoming more passionate about), at least for now. Instead, I will direct you to an open letter sent by Dr. Petsko, former President of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, to George Philip, the President of the State University of New York, shortly after its decision to cut the Humanities department. The letter, titled "a Faustian bargain" adds some insight on the importance of interdisciplinary education in today's world.
What is Artsci about? Community. The program is very tight knit ("We put the cult in faculty!"... despite not being a faculty?), and though students tend to follow different tracks (combined honours in dozens of fields), there is a strong sense of togetherness and fellowship.
McMaster's Favourite Word? Inquiry. or perhaps Innovation, but I'll stick with Inquiry for now. Mac likes to promote the idea of "problem based learning", or PBL, where education is more student/project directed, instead of professor/textbook guided. While I feel that the word "inquiry" is sometimes tosses around too much, it is a core value to several programs at Mac, in both Healthsci and Artsci. Even my biochem courses seem to highlight Inquiry quite a bit. Artsci has a very central Inquiry class in first year, focussing on third world development issues - that brings together politics, a bit of economics, and whatever topic the student chooses.
What do we graduate with? B.Arts Sc. (Bachelor of Arts and Science). A good chunk of students tend to do a combined honours, which would show up as an Honours Bachelor of Arts and Science (Biochemistry) in my case. The course selection is a bit of a double major, with a set of core artsci classes, and the core biochem (or whatever) courses taking up most of one's elective space.
Where do students go? Everywhere, and anywhere. Naturally, Artscis tend to have a broad range when it comes to fields of interest. But there's one thing we have in common. Actually two. 1) We love to learn - most tend to continue pursuing education. 2) We're Artsci 'til we die.
I didn't plan on writing this much, so I'll stop now, and perhaps I'll talk more about artsci in a later post. For now, if you wish to learn more, there was a case study written about the Arts and Science Programme if you'd like to take a look. "Combining Two Cultures", a collection of reports by various professors, and put together by Dr. Herb Jenkins, our first director =).
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