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The free association sessions in this Institute have been useful to me to solidify ideas I have but have not put into words. What differentiates the Arts and the Sciences?? They are both creative. They are both investigative. They both involve the concrete and the abstract. In both, information and technique build upon the previous work of others. Is it just content forming the frame of reference and the "tools of the trade" that are the difference between them? What makes my daughter the artist (art historian and architect) and myself, the scientist (biology and neuroscience). Both of us have been teachers. Our early childhood experiences were dramatically different. Hers were more enriched. The physical and emotional care we received as children were also dramatically different. We share genes but not all genes. We are not the same and yet share many characteristics. OK back to the question. Why do we look at the world with different content and tools? Is it the arrangement of the tendons, ligaments, and muscles in our bodies or the way our neurons have made connections with other neurons in our brains, or both. Is there something about the way we transport oxygen that differs in the left and right hemispheres of our brains? She is after all left handed/ambidexterous and I, definitely right-handed. What allows my right-handed son and I to share a fondness for expressing ourselves in poems? He is not a scienctist but a poet, writer, and businessman. The difference must lie in the "wiring" of our central nervous systems rather than in the anatomy of the muscular system. In that system, we might find the differences in raw athletic talent. But again, we would have to look to the brain to find the differences that underlie a preference for single driven sports like figure skating versus team driven sports like soccer. Both utilize similar skills.

How does all this relate to teaching in an inquiry based classroom? Children need to have the time and freedom to understand what they enjoy and what gives them a feeling of success. A child can enjoy most disciplines if presented in an open environment. My example is my student who earned D, F, D in the three trimesters of Grade 7 Science but announced that science was her favorite subject. The experience opens possibilities for her to investigate a place for herself in science. She needs to have that same experience in the Arts and in the Sciences in order to choose a life path in which she will find pleasure and success.