By Austin Norville ’15
THE ROUNDUP
Students tend to lean toward a certain subject when it comes to their favorite classes or extracurricular activities.
“I love books and I love discussing books, but at Brophy I was kind of a math guy,” said Mr. Steve Smith ’96. “I told myself I was going to be an engineer and I took all of these advanced calculus classes. I really enjoyed my English class but I don’t think I read a book outside of the curriculum until college.”
Mr. Smith said he applauds those students who love to read and write.
“I just think that’s a special student who already values literature, I think that those guys are unique,” Mr. Smith said. “I think that might just be a part of them but at the same time I feel like its definitely part of me, but I wasn’t that guy in high school.”
Mr. Smith said he believes students should have a mix of math/science and English instead of just focusing on their interests.
“Of course they should because I think that right now they’re starting to build up who they are, so to expose themselves to both math and sciences and English can only be valuable,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Smith said Brophy does a great job of bringing out both math/science students and English students.
“There’s just so much extra stuff that didn’t exist when I was a student that we have now in terms of Poetry Out Loud, or BLAM’s writing contests, or The Wrangler or The Roundup,” Mr. Smith said. “There’s all these cool things, but also we can switch it back around and talk about Robotics and things like that, so what does Brophy do well, I just think we present this plethora of opportunities.”
Andy Wuensche ’15 said he believes the future can be achieved through math and science.
“Math and science make up the world around us. Many want to understand and be part of everything occurring around us when people imagine the future, all that comes to them are images of flying cars that take them to Mars and robots that bring them more bacon. These can only be achieved through math and science,” Wuensche said.
Wuensche said there are differences between math and English students.
There is a major difference between math and science students and English students. Math and science students tend to keep to themselves and other math and science students because people outside that group will not understand their interests,” Wuensche said. “English students; however, tend to explore the world more. Those interested in writing want to find things to write about. They need inspiration and they get this through talking to people, experiencing new things and exploring the world.
Wuensche said society usually assumes math and science students can be considered more likely to strike it rich.
“I feel these differences should be encouraged but they should not be encouraged to the point that the other subject is completely nonexistent in the student’s life,” Wuensche said. “We should encourage great writers to be great writers and great mathematicians and engineers to be great mathematicians and engineers. But great writers should know algebra and engineers and mathematicians should know how to read and write. If a student knows what field he or she is interested in, the majority of their education should be focused on nurturing that interest and turning it into their profession.”