STEM: GOOD. Lying to kids: BAD

“When it gets generalized to all of STEM, it’s misleading,” said Mr. Teitelbaum, a senior research associate in the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. “We’re misleading a lot of young people.”  — from “Where the STEM Jobs Are (and Where They Aren’t)” NY Times 11/1/17STEM jobs vs demand

Here’s the problem with intensively focusing on STEM and STEAM as primarily about students getting good jobs in the future. The jobs simply aren’t there.

I’ve never advocated for STEM experiences and classes because of jobs. We should teach children how amazing the world is AND that they can have a hand in exploring, discovering, and understanding the world. I’ve asked audiences worldwide to try this mental reversal – if there AREN’T amazing STEM jobs out there, should we not teach science?

And now it turns out that this is true. So let’s review:

STEM: GOOD. Lying to kids: BAD

2 Replies to “STEM: GOOD. Lying to kids: BAD”

  1. – if there AREN’T amazing STEM jobs out there, should we not teach science?Does that mean we don’t teach Math because you can buy a calculator. Don’t teach spelling because we have spell checkers. In fact why teach any knowledge because we have google.

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