What’s REALLY Important
I’m not sure I ever worried my parents more than when I announced I was changing my major from Molecular Biology to Communications. But why were they worried? I’m a good student at a well-ranked private university with relatively low tuition, and I’m pursuing a degree in a field that I’m interested in. Well, I’ll tell you why: comparative importance. Let me explain. As a society, we tend to place a higher level of importance on certain academic fields than we do others. But why? All academic fields are equally important and essential as each other, and should be respected as such. The doctor is not better than the author, and the author is no better than the scientist, and so forth.
“But doctors save lives!” Yes, and so do authors and scientists. We’ve been conditioned most of our lives to view doctors and other high-paying traditionally-male professions as being the “most important”, which is pretty messed up. A recent study done by Madhavi Menon and Louise Perry shows the effects of this mindset on young children. Menon and Perry conducted a study of 151 kids around age 11, and the results were a little disheartening but not at all surprising. The children were tested in the areas of Math, English, and Science, and asked to predict which area they thought they’d do the best in. The girls mostly predicted that they’d do better in English, while the Boys thought they’d do better in math. In actuality, there was little to no difference in ability between the genders, but there was the perception that boys were better at STEM subjects and girls were better at English, or, in the words of Menon, “Results tend to suggest the dominance of gender-stereotype consistency effects in relation to ability perceptions” (Menon and Perry, 23). English is often seen as a “softer” subject, and as such we, as members of a patriarchal society, have often pushed girls towards those “softer”, less “rigorous” subjects in the past, so that they have more time to take care of the kids and keep house. Which is equally as important as being the breadwinner, but it’s upsetting that we force our girls into this position. Why can’t we just urge our children to succeed in something, no matter what that may be?
This study is supported by a study done by Hanna Gaspard, Isabelle Häfner, Cora Parrisius, Urlich Trautwein, and Benjamin Nagengast. The GHPTN study (I’ll refer to the aforementioned study as such to save time) focuses on kids in grades 5–12. This study found that the older children get, the more they start to adhere to gender stereotypes and see a decreased value in subjects that are not of particular interest to them. To quote the study directly, “Students’ value beliefs in different academic domains are crucial predictors of students’ effort and persistence in these domains as well as of their long-term academic choices” (GHPNT, 1). To put it simply, as we get older, we start to buy into the idea that being successful means having constraints, and that we are only good for what we’re good at. Additionally, we have a greater acceptance of gender stereotypes as we get older, and let that color our decisions as well. In doing so, we limit ourselves and become only as good as society allows us to be. We paint ourselves into a corner by shifting our focus entirely to one thing, instead of focusing on how things can fit together.
This idea that one field is more important than the other is completely bogus, yet we let it translate to other areas as well, like sports. If you turn up at a high school football game, you’ll find far more people than you would if you attended a high school academic team match. Though one might argue that there is more to be learned at an academic team meet, another may argue that the opposite is true. And both of them could be right, for they themselves could learn more at one event over the other. But, more people will go to the football game because they see football as more interesting or important to them than academic team. Before I speak about it anymore, I should probably explain “importance” as a concept. Merriam Webster defines the word important as “marked by or indicative of significant worth or consequence”(Merriam-Webster.com). Therefore, something of importance is something of “value”. But of value to whom? My parents, who equate science with money and money with security and security with happiness, or me, who loves to write about current events and equates happiness with liking what I do? Or is it you, the reader, who has your own values and your own definition of happiness?
The truth is, it’s all of us. We’re all right because we all place importance on different things. At this point, where we’ve acknowledged that importance in and of itself is highly subjective, we have to find a place where all the different importances work together and mesh well. You may feel that science is the most important, while someone else may feel that language is far superior, but truthfully, they all need each other to work out. In school, we’re often pushed to do the things that we’re good at, to focus on them rather than the things we’re not so good at. In the article, ‘“To be English, Math, and History”: A Multidisciplinary project for Students and Teachers.”, teachers Nancy Pekter and Bruce McAskill explain an experiment of sorts they did in which they made the high-school seniors they taught do one big project that extended across multiple disciplines, rather than a collection of mono-disciplinary projects. When they suggested the idea to their students, they were alarmed to see how the students viewed each discipline as its own, separate thing. By the end of the project, some students had made interdisciplinary connections, but many hadn’t. Many were frustrated, and failed to see the point of combining the disciplines. When asked why they decided to assign an interdisciplinary project, McAskill said: “We wanted to see an actual transfer of knowledge” (Pekter and McAskill, 49). It’s safe to say that we all have a decent idea of what we’re good at, and a knowledge of how to demonstrate and use our skills, but what about the other stuff? Petker and McAskill wanted to see what happened when students are forced to combine their areas of expertise with other areas, much like people are forced to do in the real world.
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They forced their students to see beyond themselves and their perceived abilities, and to see the importance of other things besides themselves. We must do so as well in order to make change in the world. My chosen field is Communications, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see the value in Dentistry. In fact, many people would say that Dentistry is superior to my chosen field. This is largely to due with the way we’re taught from a young age. When I was little, I always thought lawyers, dentists, doctors, etc, were the most important because they made the most money. I was taught, intentionally or not I’m not sure, that money equals success, and maybe even happiness. This could be because I was raised in a home where money was always an issue, and as a child I yearned for a time when spending money wasn’t associated with guilt, when I wouldn’t wonder if one purchase or the other would be the reason we’d have only peanut butter sandwiches and milk for dinner for the last few days of the month. I learned that financial security was the key to a happy life, instead of learning that doing what you love was what made you happy. Many people seem to share this view, as most of us have had to worry about money at one point or another. But if we abandon the idea that money equals importance, how do we look at the hierarchy of perceived importance?
Some will argue that doctors must be the most important, because they heal, or that farmers must be, because they grow food, or engineers, because they figure out how to structure our homes. Dependent upon who you ask, you’ll likely get many different answers. And really, they’re all right. It just depends on the situation. A doctor may be most important to their patient, while a farmer may be most important to whoever they are feeding. A writer may be most important to someone awaiting the next book in a series, and a plumber may be most important to someone who has a busted pipe. Really, importance is an illusion which we adjust our view of to fit our needs at the time.
We place such “importance” on being the best at this or that, but traditionally, well rounded people are the ones who accomplish the most things. For example, I did a lot of extracurriculars as a child. As a result, I have a wide range of skills in many different areas. I may not be the very best at any one thing, but I’m very good at a lot of things. It takes a culmination of things to make you who you are, so why try and limit yourself to one thing? Think of Beyoncé. She’s a singer by trade, but is also a savvy business women with her clothing line IVY PARK, and her investments in many other artists. Beyoncé is no doubt a wonderful singer, but the fact that she’s also a businesswomen doesn’t detract from that- it only adds to it! Because she’s not backed herself into a corner as a one trick pony, she’s more successful than she otherwise would’ve been. And by successful, I mean she’s more knowledgeable and well-rounded than someone who is just a performer. There’s nothing wrong with specializing, as she has, but there’s no need to focus solely on one thing as I feel we are often pressured to do.
A study from the Education Journal found that “Children with well-developed social and emotional skills have a better chance of being happy and healthy adults than those who are just bright” (Education Journal, 10). Instead of encouraging our children to follow one path, we should be encouraging them to explore their options, as it will serve them better later in life. We’re asked from the time that we start preschool what we want to be when we grow up, and while it’s good to have goals, why suggest such a narrow focus?
As a solution to the issue we have here, of taking perceived importance as actual importance, I’m suggesting we all take some time to do something we’re very bad at. And I’m suggesting we do it every day, for a long period of time. Perhaps then we’ll begin to understand the true importance of the things we generally regard as being less or more important than the things we do. We cannot gain a true respect for something that we cannot understand, and to truly understand something, we must practice it ourselves. If we were to force a doctor to write entertaining short stories, or a journalist to draw up complex contracts, they might have more respect for the authors and the lawyers of the world, and also, more respect for ourselves. Now obviously, we can’t always do this, as we can’t let a farmer take someone’s spleen out because he’s untrained, but I think it would be very beneficial and unifying in the long run for professionals to explore fields that they aren’t experts in. Part of the reason we think we’re only good at this thing or that thing is because we’re forced to do only this thing or that thing. We start to truly believe that the skill we constantly use is the only one we have, and that’s a dangerous mindset to have. It breeds low self worth.
Essentially, importance is entirely subjective. What’s important to you will vastly differ from the person next to you, and the person next to them, and so forth. All academic fields are equally as important as each other, largely because all of them are most important to someone, and should be respected as such. If we really try to better understand each other, then we can begin to see how truly important each different discipline is, instead of just taking our perception of them at face value. To truly know, you must first understand. If we can do this, then we can understand each other better, and overall, become better people living in a better world.
