November 1, 2019
Intro: The increasing anxiety in teenagers is a serious public health issue that’s consuming the youth of today. With the balance of art and science working in unison, we can change how we deal with anxiety and how teenagers’ can deal with their own anxiety.
Paragraph/Claim 1: Both Jonah Lehrer and Yo-Yo Ma agree that science and art are needed in tandem to balance out society and its future path. With today’s ever-changing society and use of technology, the connection between the science and arts is weakening. The biggest concern is that we’re losing the ability to connect abstract thought with concrete terms. In “The Future of Science … Is Art?”, Jonah Lehrer discusses that there’s a gap between where science understands the human brain and where the arts understand the perception of self. In this essay, Lehrer says “the standard response of science is that such art is too incoherent and imprecise for the scientific process.” Lehrer’s observation correctly points out that we hold science on such a high platform, while art is seen as a waste of time unless you are Picasso or another one of the greats. Though science is valuable and should be held in high regards, the arts should be held to the same standards given their importance in understanding the self and all the emotions that come with the self. In “Necessary Edges: Art, Empathy, and Education”, Ma stresses the importance of STEAM education in schools. Not necessarily more classes for the arts, but more importance placed on how useful they are. In Ma’s essay, he says “integrative awareness is especially important today as our steichen-driven, technologically advanced world is breaking down into ever more compartments, specializations and disciplines- even as the interdependence of globalization is creating more links with other cultures through which empathetic understanding is vital.” Throughout each essay, both authors make points that I can strongly agree with. Even though science is taking us in new and exciting directions, without art, our society would be cold and too bright. The arts, especially in public education, is a necessity to keep life full of emotions, intrinsic values, and what makes us human.
Claim 2: Artistic expression through painting, sketching, music, and other forms is proven to be a coping mechanism. Though science is needed to understand the chemical imbalance that causes anxiety and how we physically respond to the hormones that produce anxiety, art is needed to understand how the irrational thoughts that come with the hormones of anxiety.
Naysayer/Claim 3: However, the evidence I have cited does not fairly represent the opposing viewpoint. Many scientists and artists alike will say that science needs to keep its place on the left and art needs to keep its place on the right, not join in the middle. Yes, over the centuries science has proven to keep us moving forward with medicine, technology, advances in how we understand our world and the surrounding atmosphere. What has art done? Even artists, who understand the emotional side of humans and why we are attracted to certain colors or patterns, would argue that there is no need or sense of urgency to connect music to physics to better understand the world and ourselves. Though these persons have every right to say that there is no impending doom without the connection or arts and sciences, I disagree.
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