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53% don't believe in climate change (2) 15% don't think vaccination is safe.
Then I don't think you don't hace a problem of obsession with STEM, bit with The lack of It. 1 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolutio... (2)http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/26/poll-53-of-americans-dont-...
It's a big strawman argument because the average American is poorly educated in STEM areas, and in philosophy and English. One area isn't being pitted against the other.
Anyway, it's a big strawman because universities have liberal arts credit requirements for science and engineering majors. You can't just load upon STEM-related courses and nothing else. (Maybe you can in some schools? That's a local problem to fix in those schools.)
A science education at a North American university exposes the human being to approximately the right does of the liberal arts.
Encouraging kids into STEM steers them in an area where they will be able to do find some kind of career, and pick up a rounded education along the way.
You can disagree with either of these proposals (and I disagree with both), but it is wrong to set up one as a straw-man to argue against the other.
The real reasons to think that STEM-mania is silly are much better described elsewhere (e.g. here; http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/the-myt...).
There is little-to-nothing to be gained by trying to entice reluctant students into fields with high unemployment and stagnant wages in the face of STEM majors leaving their respective fields in droves.
When: 43% of americans don't believe in evolution. (1) 53% don't believe in climate change (2) 15% don't think vaccination is safe. Then I don't think you don't hace a problem of obsession with STEM, bit with The lack of It. 1 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolutio... (2) http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/26/poll-53-of-americans-dont-...
To believe in evolution is to contradict their beliefs in God.
Most people on HN didn't reasoned out the chain of evidence that lead to us to believe in evolution, yet they probably believe in the theory of evolution.
I 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.
You can't teach that creativity. The people with some of the most notable kinds of creativity didn't get it from sitting through some humanities courses.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
When: 43% of americans don't believe in evolution. (1) 53% don't believe in climate change (2) 15% don't think vaccination is safe. Then I don't think you don't hace a problem of obsession with STEM, bit with The lack of It. 1 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolutio... (2) http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/26/poll-53-of-americans-dont-...
Is it a real issue if someone is doing really good things for society, being an excellent person, but happens to disagree with you about evolution or climate change?
Science is getting to be its own fundamental religion for many IMHO, who prescribe 'science' as the answer to everything, and treat scientific papers as the bible (They also cherry pick the scientific papers they like, and ignore the ones they don't, just like religious folks do).
Also, the link you cite for climate change is 404, but I would expect the only real bone of contention is whether any change in the climate is caused by humans or not. Are there really people who deny the climate is changing?
When: 43% of americans don't believe in evolution. (1) 53% don't believe in climate change (2) 15% don't think vaccination is safe. Then I don't think you don't hace a problem of obsession with STEM, bit with The lack of It. 1 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolutio... (2) http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/26/poll-53-of-americans-dont-...
It isn't really about scientific ignorance but as to what tribe(s) you belong to or what authorities you trust. To believe in evolution is to contradict their beliefs in God. Most people on HN didn't reasoned out the chain of evidence that lead to us to believe in evolution, yet they probably believe in the theory of evolution.
Once again, no. Stop spreading this tripe. Catholic doctrine for example is quite clear a belief in evolution does not contradict church doctrine. This is the kind of statement that tries to create a conflict where one shouldn't be.
I 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.
Yes; it's just not the liberal arts kind of creativity where there is no objective criterion for being wrong. You can't teach that creativity. The people with some of the most notable kinds of creativity didn't get it from sitting through some humanities courses.
Don't most people just get degrees in stem, because they think it leads to a good job. There was an article on HN before on how students are jumping ship from law school to engineering school.