Opinion: Is STEM Ruining the Humanities?

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Many high schools have shifted their focus to STEM programs and are pushing students towards careers in this path.

STEM is important and there will always be available jobs within those fields, but the massive push towards STEM is slowly ruining the humanities. 

Students who have a love of English, art, music, or history are stepping away from those passions. This has created a rapid decrease in humanities majors throughout many colleges.

The decline in humanities majors is so upsetting to me, considering I am an English major. Of course, STEM is important but so are the humanities!

Literature is such a valuable piece of art. Books can be an escape from reality or a plethora of knowledge. Literature saves pieces of history as well.

Writing is an extremely important skill as well. Without writers, we would have no plays, movies, books, news articles, etc.

Without music or theater, life would be extremely boring because we would have no entertainment. Without history, the world would continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. 

Instead of having this massive drive towards STEM, there should be a focus on what would make students happy. 

I originally was planning on being a nursing major. This is because high school doted on how wonderful any job in science, math, engineering, or technology would be and how much money I could make. Fortunately, I had the realization that my passion lies in literature and writing. 

If school had shown the opportunities that lie in all majors and career paths and not just STEM, I could have come to this conclusion much earlier in my academic career. 

The humanities preserve history as well as inspire creative thinkers.