What would YOU say if your high school art teacher bashes your intended engineering major?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

Hello guys. This my first time on this engineering forum.

I’m a high school senior girl who had always dreamt to be an engineer.

Today (actually just now), I was in ceramics class working on a clay coil object. My teacher gave us 2 weeks to do it, but I finished it all today. When I showed it to her, she said that my project was too small and I needed to learn to take my time. Then she said that I’m the kind of person who ALWAYS try to “get to a point” and not really caring about the actual process.

I didn’t directly respond to her comment about me, but said I would add some height to my project next class.

I started to clean up, when she suddenly said: “you just have a typical mind of engineers. Some people just have an art mind behind everything they do, and you’re the type of person who don’t.”
She said this smiling, so I casually responded: “how do you know THAT?”
She said: “my brother and husband are both engineers, and I know how it is for you guys. You tend to know everything on paper but when you actually try to do it, you don’t work it out.”
I was already kind of offended at that point.
Then she goes on saying: “I can just tell that you’re the type of person working in a little cubicle in the future, programming and arguing with each other who’s a better scientist. Like Sheldon and Leonard.”

I was pissed off by her stereotypical impression of engineers and upset that she’s quick to judge and label someone, esapically when that person is her student.

I don’t blame her. She’s just a straight forward person with a strong personality. We were even fairly close.

It was indeed an argument, but I never said anything rude like “okay 10 years later my wage as an engineering will triple the wage of you superior art teacher” or “judge bill gates, he’ll laugh in your face. Oh wait, he wouldn’t, cuz he doesn’t care what a high school art teacher thinks.”

You know guys, I’m so aware that engineering is one of, if not THE, toughest majors to get through. I always treated engineering as something so creative and powerful - for it solves problems and really “gets to a point”. Instead of making something aesthetically pleasing, we make it functionable.

That’s why I don’t know how I should take any of the crap she said.

2

I’d say just don’t even worry about it. Why let it bother you? What a high school art teacher thinks has very little (read: none) bearing on your future as an engineer. She can just go ahead and live in her bubble and be happy with it and you can move on. The end.

3

I wouldn’t let it bother you at all. Sounds like a lot of jealousy in her comments.

4

Why is the standard response to comments like this that the commenter must be jealous? Why should an art major be jealous of engineers? That’s just silly. Not everyone has to be an engineer and not everyone should be an engineer. Treating all criticism like it comes from a place of jealous is why people in the arts get annoyed with engineers.

Really, the comments in the original post just sound like this teacher has some smug sense of superiority about the value of the arts compared to engineering, but what does it matter? It doesn’t. Just let it go.

5

@boneh3ad she’ll probably bring it up tomorrow, especially since I have two classes with her. I don’t want to argue with her again but I just want her to know so badly that people can be creative and “get to the point” at the same point.
I told her that “the reason why I want to finish it today is that I don’t want to be wasting my time for two weeks”. Then she said: “you’re not wasting you time.” And I said: “yes, if I keep working on something that I’m well capable of finding in one day, I am.”
I just thing there’s nothing wrong with just wanting to get something done. Doctors to treat patients in a timely manner; and so does engineers. I just don’t get what’s wrong with that

6

@saillakeerie
From her voice of superiority, I didn’t sense any jealousy. That’s the problem - she GENUINELY thinks all engineers are uncreative nerds. Like, what the hell?

7

I hear jealousy. You don’t. Both are opinions. Different people will have different opinions. Just let it go.

8

She’s ignorant. There is a lot of creativity necessary to translate an architect’s pretty sketches into a building that’s possible to construct! It’s not just numbers and computers. :frowning:

9

@MaineLonghorn THANK YOU. That’s what I’m trying to say.

10

All it really means is that she likes to overgeneralize and doesn’t actually know that much about engineering. Being married to an engineer doesn’t mean you suddenly understand everything about them. Just ask my wife; she will back that up.

Solving problems in engineering, in some sense, is very much about the process, not just the answer. You won’t get the consistently correct answer on novel problems if you don’t appreciate the process. That said, perhaps your art teacher fails to recognize that engineers have to be focused on the answer, because when the answer is wrong in engineering, the bridge falls down or the iPhone gets bricked or the plane won’t take off. In art, you just end up with a misshapen pot and try again.

On the other hand, perhaps you really ought to try to appreciate the process a bit more as your teacher insists when it comes to art. There is no problem with trying to appreciate things like art, even if your academic passion is engineering (though I certainly won’t make any claims to being an art aficionado).

Also, please don’t interpret the above as me devaluing art in any way. Art has no more or less intrinsic value than engineering, and if my future kid wanted to study art, I’d be just fine with that. It’s just that when you get the answer wrong in art, people don’t die (and that is assuming that you even believe in the concept of a wrong answer in art).

11

@boneh3ad thank you. I totally agree with what you said.
It’s really not that I didn’t enjoy the process - why would I take art if I won’t enjoy it? I just did it faster. That’s it. She’s got a problem with that and makes inferences about my future career even my personality.
I just want to defend myself without being irrespectful or cocky.

12

To be fair, Bill Gates is not an engineer. :smiley: I would simply say that she is rude. She is entitled to her opinion, but it was pretty rude of her to generalize and say it out loud to you. I wouldn’t engage with her on it any further. If she says something like that again, I would tell her that you find her general criticisms of your future career plans to be inappropriate, and that if you wanted her input on that subject you would have asked for it.

The world needs engineers and artists. But I really wouldn’t engage with her on it any more.

13

@intparent thank you! That’s what I’ll do
Eh yea, sorry, but at least he’s not an artist…maybe Mark Zuckerberg is a better example? Idk. That’s irrelevant :slight_smile:

14

None of them finished college :slight_smile:

15

I would probably shrug my shoulders and say something like “that’s an interesting opinion.” Or “that’s one way to look at it.” I wouldn’t prolong it as a discussion.

16

She’s probably taking a lot of grief about teaching art from her family, and you happened to be convenient.
Dance is art, poetry is art, architecture has art, and so help me there’s a lot of beauty and art in good engineering too.
These are things that never should be at odds.
I’ve been known to recommend new engineers spend some time immersing themselves in Scandinavian design before starting a software project. " More Ikea, less baroque!"

17

I know what I would be thinking although I would not dare say it to the teacher. :smiley:

18

I wouldn’t worry about it. Of course I am not your typical mom … I’m a daughter of an engineer, wife of an engineer, mother of an engineer… and an engineer myself with friends that are mostly from work So to me engineering is normal, and I think of the artsy people as “different” (not better or worse, just an interesting change of pace).

My question is why are you taking two art classes? It doesn’t sound like your cup of tea.

19

She knows lots of engineers who know their stuff on paper but it real life it just doesn’t work out??? Their bridges fall down??? Their planes break??? Really??? I wouldn’t say a darn thing. She is obviously working out some emotional problems with her family at your expense. Engineering is all about application. If it doesn’t work in real life it is merely scientific theory. I’m from a family of 7+ engineers. Pursue your dream.

20

My Physics major kid loves art and is very artistic. STEM oriented students can like both – and there is nothing wrong with that. They are as entitled to take two art classes as anyone else. An art teacher’s opinion on a student’s art is merely that – an opinion. An engineer might prefer a more minimalist or sleek design approach to something than the teacher likes, for example, but it doesn’t make it wrong as long as the student understands and can demonstrate the techniques being taught.

I agree with @MomfromKC – she is taking out her own issues on you.