Is Kenya Better Off A Science-Oriented Country Or As An Arts-Based One?

It bothers any parent what their children will become after school. Many parents make the mistake of forcing their kids into certain disciplines just because their feelings drive them to do so. These moves are often out of concern and are meant to better the child's opportunities in a competitive world, but they don't.

We are all wired differently. Some kids are gifted or are quite interested in the sciences just as others are better suited in the arts. The signs always manifest early enough for the kids to be mentored and encouraged into their spaces of excellence.

We know that many wander through different ages not knowing what their purpose in life was, simply because they were never encouraged into their perfect fits.

As a country, given our natural advantages of climate, geography, and a resilient population, are we better off leaning towards sciences or the arts?

Let me ask another question: would you consider the multitudes of idlers available for protests and impromptu gatherings as scientists or artists? Let us pack that for a little while.

In school, we develop interests that either lean towards the arts or the sciences. Since we know what they are, let's side-step the nitty gritty and focus on their respective impacts on national life.

Both sciences and the arts have their types of creatives whose products are distinctly different. Engineers have inventions that make life easier for us in all disciplines from medical equipment to appliances at home.

Meanwhile, those that take the arts route keep us informed about history and entertain us on TV, theatre, and stand-up comedy to name a few.

What is quite surprising though, is that even the arts have some sciences in them. Everything has its principles, the truths that hold the specific discipline in place. And equally, every science has an artistic part in it. The way information is conveyed for maximum effect always follows an artistic route.

Let's use sports to illustrate the point. Any sport has its science and its art. How you train and why you train follows basic scientific principles that help get the sportsperson ready for the particular event.

How the activity is executed follows an artistic route to deliver the flair needed to make the difference between winning and losing. The coach must understand both the science and the art in order to be effective in his job.

Now, back to Kenya. Having considered all aspects of our lives, it is impractical to have a total leaning on either discipline. We cannot turn everyone into an artist, say a lawyer or musician much as they depend on scientific innovations to make life interesting.

Equally, we cannot make everyone a scientist such as a doctor or chemical engineer much as they rely on many aspects of art to thrive.

The debates that have advocated for radical shifts in education policy have assumed that everyone is of the same nature as scientists or artists. Variety has always been the spice of life.

If we must be the bastion of most things in the world, we must let the richness in our diversity thrive and blossom to their maximum possible states.

If you can, let your child sit a personality assessment. They bring out their strengths and you can then steer them accordingly.

By the way, many of those we talked of earlier as readily available for mass action are people whose dreams were tampered with along the way and want a place to vent their frustrations. This is a failure of society and not necessarily their own.

To avoid growing this group, let us allow our youngsters to do what they are best suited for.