STEM vs. Liberal Arts

The LA Times recently had an interesting editorial about the value of a STEM (science, tech, engineering and math) education verses liberal arts. Normally, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to the subject matter but with one grandchild graduating from high school next spring and more coming up fast behind her, I thought it quite compelling and relevant to their and my own education.

So, I’ve taken the liberty of editing that editorial and interjecting my own thoughts along the way.

College philosophy departments — along with the other humanities and the social sciences are shrinking with reduced fields of study, smaller teaching staffs and fewer courses.

Part of this shrinkage in many big universities and smaller colleges as well is the result of rising concerns about the cost of a college degree, which can leave graduates and parents in serious debt for years or decades.

With the advantage of my own time spent on this planet and a secure retirement as a comfortable landing pad, I can look back at my own education and career and ponder what might have been had STEM garnered such importance in my own working world.

Students understandably want to feel that their investment of time and money will pay off in the not-too-far future. A STEM degree — science, tech, engineering and math — often opens up more and better-paid career opportunities than those in other majors. As a result, fewer students are signing up for non-STEM majors and courses, and colleges, already wondering how they’ll survive declines in enrollment, are in turn shrinking those departments.

University humanities and social sciences departments also have been demonized by the far right as hotbeds of “wokeism,” fuzzy thinking and rampant liberalism, where some conservative students and professors say they’re made to feel unwelcome when they are not taking a progressive stance.

Having heard that, I couldn’t help but ponder what, if anything, is going to come from Nana’s art and cooking classes she always conducts when she’s with the grandkids. In addition, putting on a scripted reading play is now part of ‘vacation at Nana’s.’ Those young people of mine are also big-time travelers throughout the United States and abroad. One has to wonder what, if anything, those experiences have done to enrich and educate their young minds.

I know from personal experience that living in Europe was both an eye-opener and cerebral adventure for me. I learned and experienced more in a week among the canals of Amsterdam than any class in college. After-hours was even more educational.

I’m old enough to remember when American businesses were told to watch and emulate the Japanese business model because they were soon going to rule the world. After the Japanese, it was the Chinese who were on that rocket path to success for its businesses. Both cultures seemed to embraced the STEM-type of approach to education for their children. Neither seemed to respect or honor the arts other than a side experiment in feeling good about one’s self and perhaps creating something new once in a while. I think Silicon Valley might agree.

As the LA Times editorial pointed out: ‘There’s nothing wrong with supporting STEM majors, which provide a path to well-paid, meaningful and fulfilling jobs. But universities were never meant to be merely career-prep schools. They also teach — or should teach — students how to think deeply and critically, analyze smartly, bring people together collaboratively, communicate articulately, as well as innovate and create. All of these traits are at the heart of humanities and social science studies.

They also happen to be traits highly valued by employers. According to a 2013 survey, more than 90% of employers agree that “demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important” than an applicant’s college major, and that ethical judgment, integrity, intercultural skills and the ability to continue learning also were key. Similar surveys a few years later showed the same: Employers were looking for workers who were great communicators and possessed “soft” skills such as critical thinking.

Sharon and I always stressed the need for our kids, while in high school, to be involved in academics, the arts and sports at the same time. We also pushed them to have the full collegiate experience as a solid groundwork for their future lives. I think we were right on that stance for their futures.

If a good future awaits people with these abilities, why are the non-STEM fields often viewed as career dead ends? This is where colleges have let their students down. Employers are looking for demonstrated capacity, which means they want applicants who have shown these abilities outside the classroom, in some mix of experience with campus organizations, volunteer gigs, internships and paid work. Relatively few colleges do a good job of providing students with those opportunities or guidance in how their studies might translate into rewarding careers.

Colleges that want the liberal arts to continue as robust fields of study need to reconsider the status quo. They should slim down tuition costs and ensure that students graduate with strong skills in critical and innovative thinking and in working with others. Those are abilities that are highly valued by employers in many different industries.

At the same time, right-wing politicians (and left-wing, for that matter) should be keeping their fingers out of how universities run their academic programs. They aren’t experts, and their attempts to control colleges arise from personal biases and political interests rather than from sound academic thinking. It seldom comes to good.

Socrates was convicted of impiety and corrupting the youths of Athens, and sentenced to drink poison hemlock. Daring ideas taught by great thinkers have long felt like a threat to petty minds.

I don’t think there’s one approach to success in college or life. So, as a parent or grandparent, you do what you have to do, ought to do and can do to give your kids and grandkids every opportunity to succeed. Then it’s up to them. Amen to that.