I've just been thinking about this this week and wondered what other people's thoughts were.
This week, DD and I were watching junior Bake off (surprisingly entertaining though clearly not highbrow!). The contestants had to bake cakes depicting their favourite subject at school. A couple of them did geography, one did English, one did PE etc. Two did "science" and those were labelled as the "brainiac" children. Dd was complaining that people's perception is that, if you're clever, you do science A levels and if you're not you do humanities.
She could have done sciences/maths at A level (she actually got the highest science marks at GCSE in her school) but has chosen to do humanities because she loves them. She doesn't regret her choices at all but she resents other people's assumptions about them.
Why do you think people assume science/maths are harder than history or English? Is there any truth in it?
I know maths/sciences/economics lead to higher salaries in the end (on average) - is that why? It's it because you need sciences to do subjects that are perceived as difficult like medicine or engineering?
Just pondering really on a lazy Sunday...
Thoughts?

Interesting - our 2 are the children of scientists (medics) - they both probably could have done either humanities or science, at A level they did a mixture and then both opted for humanities at Uni.

For them it was the right thing to do - in some ways I think people doing humanities get a better deal - there is more scope for opinions and ideas and analysing information. Science can sometimes feel a bit like there is a right or wrong answer (except high level maths of course - beyond me). I sometimes think that bright people can frustrated in science but have more scope in humanities

Don't know about you LL but I reckon Medicine is odd - there aren't always right answers and the analytical side can feel very much like an art not a science - a stream of symptoms merged with knowledge of the epidemiology of conditions brings up the differential diagnosis and it is onwards from there, more learning by osmosis.

I agree regarding medicine.
I struggled with the preclinical years because I'm not a natural scientist and only did them because I wanted to be a doctor. I was fine once we got into the clinical stuff and did well after that.
Medicine is definitely as much of an art as a science - once you get through the science bit!
Both DH and I did science A levels though he's not particularly science-y and has never used them since.

We are both scientists, one child did history, the other philoshopy.
Where did we go wrong?!

We were quite impressed at our outcome - clearly much parental groaning had finally been noticed

I’m a scientist through and through. Most miffed when, for a post grad action research project, I was not allowed to put a group of children in a locked cupboard and not educate them at all as a control group.

Well we are the confused family

I did purely humanities A levels and a social science degree, DH did a mix of A levels and a languages degree. Ds1 did languages and humantities for A level and is now doing Sport at uni with a view to going into teaching and Ds2 has applied to do Physics and Philosphy. Though we did do something right as neither want to work in an office

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Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !

DD is the child of two engineers, one dyslexic, and one with dyslexic traits (and a lower English O level grade ). Between us we can just about string two sentences together.

DD is doing A levels in maths, English lit and sociology, having done an AS in chemistry, but no interest in being an engineer.

On the bright side she is pretty good at maths, which is the only subject I could have helped her with but she never needs it. However it is the one thing that keeps us reasonably sure we didn’t bring home the wrong baby from Hospital.

That and the weird crease in her ear lobes she gets from her father.

Such a shock when kids can do something you can't - I am utterly useless at foreign languages - DS did one as part of his degree. They can also write long essays . DS is definitely the right baby - we have done Ancestry DNA

Me too! Interestingly at DD1's school in her year very few of the top science GCSE set did all science A levels, although some of the rest did maths and/or one other (this was in 4 A levels as a norm for the very able days) Because they are ignorant. No. Sadly yes. No, and why those subjects are considered more difficult is another question...
Great post loobylou, for what it is worth A level wise here parents are one scientist, one humanities, DDs a mix for both (if you include maths and further maths) all high achieving in sciences at GCSE, but all firmly in careers that are totally unrelated and for which humanities might have been more useful. The assumption that appears to prevail in some circles that if you are good at sciences you should do them is a really bad one. The idea that this makes you brighter or holds more prestige even worse. Sorry for long post but it is a personal bete noir of mine

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mad?