Arts group editorial - School Magazine.

The impudence or looking down upon the students of the Arts & Humanities group is not an isolated phenomenon that occurs only in Coimbatore or Tamil Nadu, it is an issue for there are instances of such disrespect throughout the country. This article contains inputs from students across various strata of society and regions such as Delhi, Mumbai, Itanagar, Pune, Madurai, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin etc., Everywhere Arts group students are dogged by the question, "Oh no! Why did you take the Arts group?" I do not claim that everyone has a bad opinion of the Arts group, but there does seem to be a more prodigious number of people who seem to dismissive of an Arts student than the few who are not.

THE TREATMENT OF THE STUDENTS:

Most of us joined this group well-aware of the general disparagements that we may receive from the people who seem to be intrinsically dismissive of the Arts group. The parents are themselves sceptical about the future of the children entering the Arts group, but the general opinion amongst the students is that choosing the group must be based on the student's own personal and logical predilections and not that of their well-meaning parents. One ought to remove the entrenched belief that only dull students take the arts group. The older generation must probably be thinking that we have an outstanding karmic payload on our heads to have "suffered" to take the Arts group in this life cycle. Many others think that taking the Arts group is a pre-requisite to "nobody-dom". There are people, even teachers who had considered the fact that I had taken the Arts group as a piece of childish rebellion. When will people come to understand that we are ensconced in our own goals and desires- a zest to achieve and that being in the arts group helps us to set a path towards realizing our greatest dreams. These days each Arts student has to be demonically clever to adroitly deflect such discouraging questions triggered by the airing of ill-disguised innuendos by well-meaning relatives.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE:

I do not know why people, more so the parents are unduly infatuated with the professions of a Doctor and an Engineer. It is a known fact that barring a few, most people who have passed out of these professional courses are redundant. There is a multitude of professions out there in the world but there seem to be too many people who are in a deep comatose funk about that fact. I can only hope that someday people might broaden their perspectives about education and the resulting professions.

There will always be those inequitable gaps overcoming the genteel intimacy between the Science students and the Commerce students. Many a student has ruefully admitted that it would have been a wiser choice to join the Arts group. But their attitudes tend to be capricious: one moment they regret their choice and the next, they become fiercely protective. Anyway, one has to understand its naturally incumbent of a student to defend his subject fiercely. Though, we may not be associated with the trappings that become a Science student, we do acquiesce the woes of our brethren who study Science. I therefore,do not think its wrong to ask for a little more encouragement and praise for Arts students, as it may contribute greatly to their progress.

It would not be right on my part to utilize formal rhetoric to change your opinions by citing a litany of the difficulties we also do face, but whatever group we take it does not undermine the basic edifice upon which all of us stand that is " KNOWLEDGE IS POWER". Our school definitely provides a prodigious wealth of learning, it just depends on how one utilizes the wealth. Finally we shall see who will succeed and who will flounder in this much touted competition called life and the tangled web that it weaves.