When people hear Science and Art they often think of the two as polar opposites, rivals in career paths and college degrees; however, integration of the two may be more possible than most people believe.

Eleanor Roosevelt High School is known for its rigorous Science and Technology program, in which students are given opportunities to be prepared to go into the Science and Tech. fields and become successful engineers, biologists, programmers, doctors, etc.

In the midst of the Science and Technology program, there has been surge in interest for the creative arts among students both in and out of science and tech. Should this interest in creative arts be encouraged by integrating more art into science and tech., or is the school doing enough as it is?

         Geometry Teacher Mrs. Laura Brewer-Heilig said she believes “ it is every teacher and parent’s responsibility to help children and young adults discover their passion and gifts ” and that the “arts help people reduce stress, appreciate beauty, and see and hear the world from different perspectives.”

      Algebra teacher Mr. Andrew Capece similarly said he believes “life would be pretty boring without music, movies, books, art, etc. I also think it’s important for students to be well rounded, and the arts can benefit students in many ways.”

       Student artist Victoria Lewis, who is in the Science and Technology program says that “art is extremely significant in my life. It’s what I hope to make a living off of when I’m older and I hope others … appreciate how hard it is to be proficient at art”.

Lewis said that art “art plays a significant part of unifying and advancing society” as it “ helps in allowing people to communicate even if they don’t speak the same language.”

Mrs. Brewer-Heilig said she finds the significance of art in geometry in the fact that “patterns are everywhere – in math, architecture, quilts, paintings, etc .” Mr. Capece said that an S/T student who does art “can help improve their creativity, be a great stress reliever, or help them find something they enjoy or are good at.”

Art on its own has a lot of benefits, but should it be integrated more into the Science and Technology program, or even be valued at all at  Eleanor Roosevelt?

According to Lewis, “the arts are not valued as highly as science and technology even though they should be. ” and believes they should valued equally because “all forms of art are a valuable part of society.”

Mrs. Brewer-Heilig said art is not as valued as Science and Technology noting that “in prior years, in times of extreme budget constraints, cuts have been made to the arts.”

Mr. Capece noted that “many of those students and teachers probably are more focused on S&T than the arts. But you also have a lot of students and staff members who value the arts more than S&T, so I don’t think you can make on sweeping statement for the whole school.”

The argument for integration of art and science is not uncommon and there are many new programs on both the high school level and college level encouraging the arts and Sciences to be combined to solve problems and puzzles in the world.