Maggie's Farm

Back in the day, when I took my degree, science students had to obtain a 'well-rounded' degree by taking arts courses. Needless to say, we were surrounded by arts majors, all of whom really WANTED to take these courses and who were not constrained by the reality of having to physically attend labs (another three hours per week per science course); presumably they had considerably more time to prepare. Needless to say, we science majors figured out which 'arts' courses would give us minimum hassle.

Did the arts students have to undergo the reverse: quite the contrary. All the 'science' courses mandated for arts students were quite specifically barred to science majors as in 'not meeting requirements' for continuing on as a science major in that field. Further, these 'science' courses had no lab requirements.

Net result: arts students could meet their 'science' requirements by attending special courses with the usual three-hour-per-week lectures and no labs, not to mention the advantage of having no other students in the class who were actually knowledgeable/interested in the subject. Science students, on however, already handicapped by the additional three-to-four-hour-per-week lab requirement per science course, had to compete in their arts requirement with majors who were passionate about the subject. The inequality rankled.

Fast forward to my offsprings, who faced the same issues. However, they became more creative. Remember particularly the science major who when, faced with a play he did not like by a Canadian icon, decided to be 'offended' by the way a minor character, of our background, was portrayed. It worked.