Ever since a young age, I always knew that I loved to dive into a good novel and nothing could express who I was better than the words on a page. Even with this knowledge, in high school I took extracurricular classes in ecological research as opposed to poetry, and when it came to finding an internship my senior year, I was only looking for something science related.
While many may peg this as just an interest in science, it wasn't until after my senior year ended that I realized this was not the case for me. After I unhappily crammed for my Biology tests, I would find solace in a good book. If a physics test didn't work out, I dealt with the stress by writing. (Or eating an entire bag of skinny pop.) When I was able to look back on my years of schooling in preparation for college, I realized that what I had wanted to do with my life was underneath the surface the entire time. So why hadn't I acknowledged it?
In today's school system, the United States has a huge push for students to want to pursue STEM careers, in response to wanting to compete on a higher level globally. Programs start as early as kindergarten to get kids to find an interest in science and math so that by the time they have to choose a college and a major, they already know that the STEM pathway is the one for them. With increases in funding for these programs comes the obvious decrease in funding for humanities, such as Art and English. But it's not just the funding that affects students such as myself.
Sure, with less funding comes less exposure to humanities classes and opportunities. But the country-wide push for an education more focused on STEM has created a new culture among students. The campaigning for STEM is so strong from early on that it leaves students with the idea that any career other than that will leave you unsuccessful and is taking the "easy way out". The amount of times I've heard other students go down the high school commitment page and laugh at those who said their major for college was going to be English is way more than any other major, if not the only major that anyone has a problem with. If you search "English major" online, you will find an enormous amount of jokes referring to the laziness, worthlessness and even pretentiousness (because knowing the difference between your and you're is so showy).
I started off my college career as solely an English major, and have gotten responses talking about how easy it is, how it will be hard for me to get a career, and how the coursework was so light I would be done in half the time of a regular student. While all of these things are half-truths, it became extremely discouraging to me as someone who had already decided I believed in the importance of English and its merit. My second semester, I ended up declaring a double major in Biology, because I was tired of people thinking I didn't have a good work ethic and it was hard to abandon the STEM mindset that had been implanted in my brain for as long as I could remember. The change in everyone's tone became completely evident, I went from a slacking off student to an over-achiever, yet here I was, still the exact same person with the exact same morals and ethics.
From the standpoint of an English major, I can't seem to see what the issue is. English students are obtaining a huge skill set in writing and reading comprehension skills, which is a coveted quality in any career. While the average person may not need to know how to take a derivative, every single person in any career needs to have the ability to write well, even if it's just to write an email to your boss. The same goes for comprehensive skills, which are also widely needed. Other humanities classes have their own skill sets that enrich their students, and while some people excel in STEM, others may find their interests lying in these skills. As for the argument that a English career isn't sustainable enough, know that on the low end of the spectrum, those with a degree in majors such as Biology, will still not be making close to six figures. It all depends on your career goals and personal sense of work ethic. So, don't lump together an entire group of people based on a perceived notion of what makes a good plan of study and career.
What we have to understand, as a educated community, is that there is nothing wrong with not being a STEM student. The way that schools have implicated programs that increase awareness of these high ranking jobs in these fields is phenomenal and great for advancing our country, don't get me wrong. I am just as strong an advocate for these careers as I am for any other. However, it should be known that there is more than one fit for different students. When a freshman in high school takes a career aptitude test and gets author or art historian as their top profession, they should not feel that it collides with what they have been taught to want, and they should not feel disappointed or upset. As a society, we should learn to embrace every facet of every career, if only to save one college student from freaking out over the path they are going to follow for the rest of their life.
