Everyone’s pushing STEM education, writes Natalie Wexler on Forbes. But math and science won’t do young people much good if they don’t understand history, civics and geography.
She asks for a new acronym. I came up with CHinG. (The “in” stands for “innovative” or “international” or maybe “integrated.” Because it sounds better than CHaG.)
Only five to 20 percent of U.S. workers are in STEM jobs, depending on how it’s defined, writes Wexler. “Employers are more likely to say they want workers with general analytical and problem-solving skills rather than specific STEM qualifications. They also value so-called ‘soft’ skills like leadership and the ability to work as part of a team.”
These skills “can’t be taught directly,” writes Wexler. They develop “only in tandem with the acquisition of knowledge and experience.”
The more knowledge you have lodged in your long-term memory, the better your chances of being able to take in and analyze any new information you come across. As one commentator has put it, the idea is to have a “knowledge party” going on in your head, where even a simple word like “apple” triggers a host of associations.
Students need a foundation in math and science that will enable them to pursue a STEM career, Wexler writes. However, most will not be STEM professionals while “virtually all will be expected to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.” Many lack the background knowledge in civics, history and geography to do so.
What some call the “crisis in civics education” is shown by “alarmingly low” scores on national tests in civics, history and geography, she writes. Three-quarters of students score blow the proficient level.
Teachers in low-performing high schools have told me their students are often unclear on the differences between a city and a state, or a country and a continent. . . . Even college students can be stumped by questions like what country we won our independence from, or who won the Civil War. One survey found that more than a third of adults were unable to name any of the rights protected by the First Amendment and only a quarter could identify the three branches of government.
History “can be taught as a series of compelling narratives that provide the cognitive framework we need to absorb and analyze information about the world around us,” writes Wexler. “But because of mistaken beliefs that young children aren’t interested in history—or that it’s just not that important—kids have little chance of getting exposed to it in school.”
Wexler’s book, The Knowledge Gap, comes out this year.
Rick Hess also thinks STEM is not enough. Neither is STEAM, which includes “arts.” He proposes STEAMED, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math, and Everything Delightful.