Month: October 2018

Mark Boslough understands perfectly how science should be treated in modern day. There should be a scientific method that is rigid but open to all and well funded. He says “Unfortunately, even after the successes of 20th-century science, there are a lot of people who still don’t like (or don’t understand) the scientific method. Science is now under attack from many directions.” I think this is important because in an age of social and artistic change, we need to keep going in the same direction with science. Yo Yo Ma’s article directly contradicts this by saying that science is more plastic than originally thought, and we can use multiple subjects such as art to further our understanding. I think if Yo Yo MA had his ideas in the world, the scientific method would die out, even though science was doing fine without him.

While focusing on the arts or sciences alone can produce limits for yourself where there should be none, balancing the dichotomy is nearly impossible. Yo Yo Ma says there should be more of a balance by incorporating the arts into our science, but what does he know? Having no outside sources of actual evidence to back up his assertions, Ma basically just goes on a tangent about his life to try to convince a gullible reader to pick up an instrument. I understand where he is coming from; I also believe that people need to be more well rounded. But to plunge our ridiculous common core standards further away from a proper education by mandating that every child study the arts is just wrong. How many scientists balance their career by wasting time with performing arts? Would Einstein’s theory of relativity be more refined if he picked up a Ukulele every day? While the left brain/right brain theory towards psychology has been pretty much debunked, most people agree there are different personality types that are virtually incompatible with each other.  By making children who might be good at sciences perform art, you’re limiting their time and brain power with distractions of music and performance that they will never be passionate about. STEAM will work for some students in the middle of the spectrum, but students who are either artists or scientists will suffer.

1. The article written by Yo-Yo Ma was originally published in an online news blog the “World Post.” Yo-Yo Ma, a cellist and songwriter, started performing when he was five years old. He won seventeen Grammy’s and he has produced more than ninety albums. He also graduated from Juilliard School and Harvard University.
2. Yo-Yo Ma wanted the people reading to understand the importance of art. He also was addressing how art teaches us some way to connect people together. He states, “We are all addressing the same issues with different names attached to them. STEAM will help us get there by resolving the problem.” He is saying how one day he desires people do things because they enjoy them, not because it was a command.
3. Yo Yo Ma is arguing for arts to become a core concept in a student’s learning experience. He feels that the arts are essential to student growth and development.
Words:
lascivious: “inclined to lustfulness.” When discussing culture, Yo Yo Ma includes an idea about the dance movement, “the sarabande,”
Invigorate: “to give life and energy to”
Ma used this word to explain how globalization can help spread new traditions.
Bandwidth: This is the range of frequencies within a given band

The changes I have made consist of putting in more quotes from the text, and looking at Little Seagull:  This includes adding narrative, cause and effect writing, contrasts, and more descriptive writing.  I feel like my revisions added more of a factual basis to my points and improved the grade of the essay according to the rubric. I will continue to make edits in the same way.