Is creativity a measurable and economically valuable product?
Paul Hiebert on the arts and humanities versus science and technology, and the benefits of merging the two to form ‘21st Century skills’.
Last summer, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences issued a report stating that the humanities are in trouble. Parents are spending less time reading to their children, K-12 history teachers are less equipped to educate than teachers of other subjects, and federal funding for academic research and development in the field is shrinking.
For anyone paying attention to such things, this isn't a surprise. As reported in The New York Times, Harvard has seen a 20-percent decline in humanities majors over the past decade, and most students who claim they intend to major in the arts end up earning a degree in something else. Or, as stated in another article lamenting the decline of English majors, "In 1991, 165 students graduated from Yale with a B.A. in English literature. By 2012, that number was 62." In the past few months, statistics like these have prompted the New Yorker, the New Republic, and the Wall Street Journal to publish pieces musing on the merits of spending a significant chunk of one's life studying Plato and Dante, Rousseau and Woolf.
In an era plagued by an expansive economic recession, heightened global competition, and disheartening student-loan debts, pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) seems to be where it's at. They're more practical fields, the thinking goes. Just ask governor of Florida Rick Scott, who in 2011 said, "Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so," while arguing that funding should shift away from departments like psychology and anthropology in favor of STEM programs. Employers, after all, value employees who possess tangible skills as opposed to a knack for problematizing cultural norms in a 12-page essay. And what are the humanities other than a luxury afforded to a select few in a time of peace and rest, anyway? This appears to be the general assertion behind America's waning interest in arts and the social sciences.
Last summer, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences issued a report stating that the humanities are in trouble. Parents are spending less time reading to their children, K-12 history teachers are less equipped to educate than teachers of other subjects, and federal funding for academic research and development in the field is shrinking.
For anyone paying attention to such things, this isn't a surprise. As reported in The New York Times, Harvard has seen a 20-percent decline in humanities majors over the past decade, and most students who claim they intend to major in the arts end up earning a degree in something else. Or, as stated in another article lamenting the decline of English majors, "In 1991, 165 students graduated from Yale with a B.A. in English literature. By 2012, that number was 62." In the past few months, statistics like these have prompted the New Yorker, the New Republic, and the Wall Street Journal to publish pieces musing on the merits of spending a significant chunk of one's life studying Plato and Dante, Rousseau and Woolf.
In an era plagued by an expansive economic recession, heightened global competition, and disheartening student-loan debts, pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) seems to be where it's at. They're more practical fields, the thinking goes. Just ask governor of Florida Rick Scott, who in 2011 said, "Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so," while arguing that funding should shift away from departments like psychology and anthropology in favor of STEM programs. Employers, after all, value employees who possess tangible skills as opposed to a knack for problematizing cultural norms in a 12-page essay. And what are the humanities other than a luxury afforded to a select few in a time of peace and rest, anyway? This appears to be the general assertion behind America's waning interest in arts and the social sciences.