on STEM versus STEAM

TL;DR: the reason why STEM education is being emphasized, and encouraged to grow, is due to us deciding that we don't have enough STEM educated productive americans.  artists seem to think that the emphasis of STEM is because it is valued more highly than the arts, and therefore more important that the arts.  i don't know where this toxic inferiority complex comes from, but it doesn't help solve the STEM problem by redefining it as STEAM.  the arts of course *are* important.  arts education is *already* successful. keep it going, and at the same time, let's work to do better than we have been with STEM.

 

artists are sneaky.

education in the STEM fields has for the past few years increased as a national priority. apparently we're not teaching enough science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in schools, from K-12, and not enough bachelors degrees in STEM fields are coming out of our universities. the problem is both the immediate needs of our job market, and the strategic long term productivity and innovation of our economy.

so... STEM gets a lot of attention. you know who that seems to bother? the artists.

are the arts important? of course they are.
when you build something, is design just as important as the engineering? of course it is.

the reason why it's STEM and not STEAM is not because the "hard" sciences are better than the arts, rather it simply comes down to supply versus demand.  the US imports a few dozen thousand foreign nationals every year, and most of them aren't artists.  they're engineers, scientists, math whizzes, and technology people.  they're not art history majors, sociologists, or those who do work in comparative literature.

• STEM is important because our country creates more B.A. graduates than it needs.

• STEM is important because jobs in the sciences and engineering should go to americans first, and there is a perennial shortage.

why do artists get butthurt when STEM initiatives don't include the "A"?

you really want to help arts education? fight for it on its own merits. everyone knows that the education that goes into what to do, why we're doing it, what it looks like, and how it functions is at least as important as the education that goes into the details of how it's built.

arts are important on their own. quit lumping it in where it doesn't belong.