Stereotypes in education. Part 2. Technicians versus humanitarians (технари vs гуманитарии).

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“Humanitarians, do not get mad at the joke technicians! 

They are people just like you, but a little smarter!”

It is thought that technicians are smarter than humanitarians. There are a lot of jokes and videos, where technicians humiliate humanitarians and show hatred towards them. This video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5DPKck0wtE would be a very clear demonstration of the reality, but I guess, from technician’s point of view.

But where do all these come from?

Nowadays there is a tendency to place students into classes of different directions, usually there are two of them called something like “technical” - natural science like mathematics, physics, chemistry etc. and “humanitarian”, including history, literature, languages and others. This might be one of the roots.

Another aspect is of hemisphere; it is believed that your inclination to any of the directions mentioned above depends on whether you are left or right hemisphered. This means, that people with well developed left brain are more logical, can easily work out mathematical tasks, count and numerate things quickly etc. and right brain people are considered to be more creative, they are close to art, poetry, singing, writing etc. And of course there also exceptions, when people do not take any position and stay between these hemispheres; these people can have strong features from each side.

And what about gender peculiarities? Why there are too many boys studying at one institutions and too many girls in others? For example, simply our school, you know the proportion of girls to boys. Maybe you have noticed how girls and boys study at school, mostly girls are excellent students; but then how come that boys become directors and get well-paid jobs?

Another conversation on this topic I witnessed recently a technician was joking sarcastically: “Humanitarians are bla-bla-bla… Check out our essence! Who creates all these innovations and makes our life easier?” To conclude, I think everything is balanced anyway, people should not say that some people are more important or smarter than others. All of these are just stereotypes.