America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
washingtonpost.com
America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
1–10 of 96 posts
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#2A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity.
Indeed. But critical thinking and creativity are the things second least prized in US classrooms, right after outright disobedience. So it's no real wonder that broad, general education has fallen out of favor.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#3A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity. Indeed. But critical thinking and creativity are the things second least prized in US classrooms, right after outright disobedience. So it's no real wonder that broad, general education has fallen out of favor.
What countries do a better job of fostering creativity and critical thinking? Every culture has its sacred cows. The idea of an environment that's fully tolerant and welcoming towards any and all dissent is, as far as I can tell, a myth.
Nonetheless, my experiences with US (university) classrooms have generally been positive. As long as it's relevant to the topic of discussion, students are free to pose a wide range of ideas without fear of social or academic reprisal. Although I must admit that some recent developments on college campuses with regards to freedom of speech are troubling.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#4With software penetrating everything there is no such thing as "outside of stem" anymore ...
Edit: Also philosophy is part of STEM ... just lacks rigor sense and practicality.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#5I think this article sets up a straw man argument that is a little disingenuous. It seems that most of the politicians (save for a couple extremists) and everyday people who support more emphasis on STEM teaching aren't arguing it should be at the expense of the liberal arts education Americans are getting now. Sure, the focus on STEM is partially about "making America more competitive" as a whole, but I think it's even more about enabling everyday people to get reliable+productive jobs and career skills that will be important in the modern workforce for decades to come. That can only be a good thing.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#6A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity. Indeed. But critical thinking and creativity are the things second least prized in US classrooms, right after outright disobedience. So it's no real wonder that broad, general education has fallen out of favor.
They also don't pay very well. One alternative is make GE a requisite part of any education.
Graduating with a liberal arts degree leads to masses of dissatisfied students who pine of the job desirability and pay of STEM workers.
in terms of creativity, I'm pretty sure science has lots of creativity. What does 'creativity' even mean? imagination, ability to create things? What have the liberal arts given society whereas sciences have brought forth the end of diseases, solutions for all kinds of maladies, shortcoming and ills of society.
Critical thinking is paramount in science, but I think general education as an end in itself is an oversell.
You don't see china and India rushing to shore up their GE gap, do you? No, I'm pretty sure they know what pays the bills and energizes their economies.
Let me know when a liberal arts degree brings home the bacon.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#7A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity. Indeed. But critical thinking and creativity are the things second least prized in US classrooms, right after outright disobedience. So it's no real wonder that broad, general education has fallen out of favor.
What countries do a better job of fostering creativity and critical thinking? Every culture has its sacred cows. The idea of an environment that's fully tolerant and welcoming towards any and all dissent is, as far as I can tell, a myth. Nonetheless, my experiences with US (university) classrooms have generally been positive. As long as it's relevant to the topic of discussion, students are free to pose a wide range…
At least here in Canada, it's too late by the time students get to university.
The high schools have already selected for obedience and rote memorization skills when sorting their students for university admission. That and rich cheaters who can afford to purchase higher grades by taking accredited night classes.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#8This is a very disappointing article. It's a regurgitation of cliches. "Education is about critical thinking and 'self enrichment'; Steve Jobs was a Prophet; Mark Zuckerberg is a Public Hero" -- how much was the author paid by Apple and Facebook, or is this what a "stupid sheep" looks like? The conflation of STEM with "Asian educational systems" is hackneyed; every person who does serious things in STEM knows that it's not just memorization. Speaking of which, why is it that people who aren't in STEM (the journalists and politicians) are so vocally worshipping it and "whining" about women and minorities being under-represented?
"No matter how strong your math and science skills are, you still need to know how to learn, think and even write." Ironically the author has none of these skills, and the best thing for him to do would be to avoid the humanities and take several rigorous math courses -- maybe then he will learn how to define his terms and stop writing things that mean essentially nothing.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#9A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity. Indeed. But critical thinking and creativity are the things second least prized in US classrooms, right after outright disobedience. So it's no real wonder that broad, general education has fallen out of favor.
They also don't pay very well. One alternative is make GE a requisite part of any education. Graduating with a liberal arts degree leads to masses of dissatisfied students who pine of the job desirability and pay of STEM workers. in terms of creativity, I'm pretty sure science has lots of creativity. What does 'creativity' even mean? imagination, ability to create things? What have the liberal arts given society wher…
Your preoccupation with paying bills that are already well and effectively paid and economies quite energized seems to obscure to you that a very large part of the purpose of a university is to turn out well-rounded human beings. While I have a CS degree (which in my school was a liberal arts degree), I credit my decision to take as few in-major classes as possible, and spend as much time in the humanities as I could, to be why I manage somehow to do very well for myself and yet claim some understanding of literature, economics, and politics.
A modern education is more than trade-school workmanship, and your rhetoric devalues it to such. You're right, in that China, India, et al. don't value that. But they as countries and cultures aren't at the same point on the cultural equivalent of Maslow's hierarchy as we are, and their actions in no way must determine ours.
Re: America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous
#10I resent the seemingly common belief that STEM and creativity are so disjoint. Every breakthrough in STEM required incredible amounts of creativity. Even average STEM workers (say, for example, a software developer) usually need to exercise creativity pretty regularly.