The Detroit News – Robert Buchsbaum
“Much has been made of the need to focus educational efforts in the area known as STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. Many educators and business leaders believe that America’s position in the global economy is tied to our ability to innovate in technology and related fields. For this and other excellent reasons, schools nationwide give more hours to math, computer science, and related subjects. Certainly the U.S. needs to keep its technical edge, and to qualify for skilled positions that are plentiful in the 21st century, the worker of the future will need to be fluent in math, science, and technology as we move to fill shortages in exploding areas like data engineering. But some STEM programs lack an important component — the integration of the arts into the educational curriculum. This is regrettable, particularly when there are many ways in which the arts can enrich a STEM curriculum. Industrial design, computer graphics, brainstorming, simple problem-solving — all can be fostered by exposure to the arts.”(more)