If you went to public school anytime in the last 15 years, you probably had STEM pushed at you a million times. Public schools particularly have been promoting these programs heavily, trying to get children to go into math and science fields. I don't have a problem with this. I think that we need doctors and engineers and mathematicians and all of that other stuff. I think all of you who are into STEM are great, and this is nothing personal.
Here's my problem: when STEM was pushed at me, it was done in such a way that it ridiculed the humanities.
I'm a double major in English and History. I like to hang out with stuff written by dead people. I like books. I like old documents. I like looking at people and how they act. I like knowing how a book would impact its original readership. I'm not into machines, equations, or formulas — I'm into people and how they work deep down in their souls. I can't do math to save my life. I've never enjoyed my science classes. That's who I am. I'm not going to change that.
But there were times when I felt ridiculous for wanting to study these things more. Even as far back as middle school when I leaned toward the humanities, I was being told that I would never find a job or make money.
I've been told by some people that I'll probably be a waitress for my entire life because there's no way I can ever get a job that'll pay enough to support me. I've had family members tell me that I should switch majors and be pre-med or a business major, that I can go to grad school and get an English degree once I have a solid background in something that I can actually use.
Now, those people (for the most part) were speaking to me in concern and love, but here's the issue: why should they feel like they need to? Why is it that we have this huge stigma surrounding the humanities that if you study them you'll never get a job? Seriously, what is the deal?
It's time for people, schools, and the entire world, quite frankly, to stop hating on the humanities and pushing STEM and instead just supporting both. Let kids and college students and whoever pursue whatever interests them. Let them follow their passions like people always tell them to (usually without really meaning it).
It's time to stop pushing STEM and instead start pushing people to find what they really love and are good at. Once they do that, it's time to start pushing them to work hard at it so that they can get better at it. It's time to stop trying to convince people that they need to change a fundamental part of who they are in order to get a paycheck.
The world goes around because of balance and difference. Humanities people, we need the STEM people to keep us going just like they need us to keep them going. We need each other. So let's support that instead of trying to get people to change.
