In the recent New York Times article, “A Rising Call To Promote STEM Education And Cut Liberal Arts Funding,” by Patricia Cohen it is cited that, there are “… a growing number of elected officials who want to nudge students away from the humanities and toward more job-friendly subjects like electrical engineering.” Additionally, students majoring its liberal arts, such a s French, should not receive state funding.
“There will be more incentives to electrical engineers than French literature majors, there just will,” Mr. Bevin, a Republican, said after announcing his spending plan. “All the people in the world who want to study French literature can do so; they’re just not going to be subsidized by the taxpayers like engineers will be…” Why has this attitude shifted? Mainly because STEM has become the focus of schools and the liberal arts have taken a backseat. Our society of elected officials have begun to view the “…liberal arts education as an expendable, sometimes frivolous luxury that taxpayers should not be expected to pay for…”. Many have argued that the liberal arts are just not aligned with the job market. However, isn’t education supposed to be about personal growth Also? As pointed out, “Education tends to be justified in terms of personal exploration and fulfillment, as well as creating informed citizens who make a functioning democracy possible. The humanities have traditionally been seen as crucial to both endeavor.”
Mr. Anthony Carnevale, a Georgetown professor, argues that education has become all about earnings. He states, “,…that there should be much more information available to students about employment and wage prospects before they choose a major so that they can make informed choices. ‘We don’t want to take away Shakespeare. We’re just talking about helping people make good decisions,’ he said. ‘You can’t be a lifelong learner if you’re not a lifelong earner.’” When comparing future salaries for graduates, “A recent salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a nonprofit membership organization that connects campus career officers with business recruiters, found once again that new STEM graduates were expected to command the highest overall average salaries in 2016.” When comparing salaries, “New engineers, for example, are expected to earn nearly $65,000 a year. The average salary for a new graduate who majored in humanities – including French literature—is projected to increase slightly from last year to $46,065, up from $45,042.” I feel it is imperative to inform students however, it is horrible to penalize them for their choices!!!! Additionally, I feel that the liberal arts are an essential part of the curriculum in order to help the student to think creatively, “outside-the-box”. Even if the student is going to be in an area of STEM, the liberal arts programs can only be of advantage to them in helping them in their work field to help them think abstractly. Although STEM maybe the “hype” today, we don’t know that in five years from now that the jobs fields will still be primarily in this area. How can we just cut off one area of academics? Again, I feel it is important to educate and inform however, to penalize for ones choices is totally unfair and unjust!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/11/is-it-really-a-d-h-d-or-just-immaturity/