Is Philosophy the New STEM?

If you are interested in education trends it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the future is based in STEM - science, technology, engineering and math. STEM has become the gold standard from elementary through high school and beyond, and it’s even taken over the world of toys and games. Like many buzzwords, it’s ubiquity has a highly dilutive effect on its intrinsic value as a signaler. Just labeling something STEM doesn’t mean it’s useful, or even very good.

To state the obvious, not every kid is interested in or good at math and science. It’s a truism that a great teacher can educate even the most reluctant student. But there are plenty of kids that just aren’t into sciences, and for good reasons. As a starter, a lot of science is taught in a really boring way. I consider myself to be an intellectual omnivore, but I suffered through more than a decade of terrible science teaching. Look at your average entry level college science course: hundreds, and at some schools thousands, of students crammed into auditorium seating listening to a “sage on the stage” - or, more often, a graduate student droning on about cell membranes or stereochemistry. We certainly don’t expect everyone to have a passion for art history. So why is it suddenly a character flaw to spurn STEM learning in favor of history or communications or economics?

Bear with me, I’m going to take a knock at a sub-level of this issue: calculus. Millions of eager college applicants over the years have struggled through high school calculus classes, and it’s become de rigueur for elite colleges to require it on competitive applications. But where is calculus relevant in the real world? Well, it’s highly relevant to a very small number of high school and college teachers, all of whom teach calculus. In a very narrow sense, calculus is also useful in certain aspects of a few technical engineering friends. You know who else is great at doing calculus (and better and faster than any human)? Your iphone. And of what use is calculus to a student that wants to study English, or History, or even Medicine? Absolutely none. In contrast, Statistics is an elective course at the vast majority of high schools, and viewed as a little bump on your college application. Nice to have, but not need to have. And for what careers is statistics relevant? Almost all. Statistics is also relevant to being a high functioning member of society. It’s too bad that more people - and college admissions officers - don’t understand the distinction between correlation and causation. If only they’d taken statistics instead of calculus!

There’s no question that STEM concepts are useful, and that there is great need for people who are well versed in and choose occupations in these fields. But the elevation of STEM to the top of the pyramid may come at a cost. To use one example, the tech industry has always understood the value of non-technical backgrounds in business, marketing and customer facing roles. Although engineers are critical to the design and execution of tech ideas, non-technical professionals are often the critical bridge between the customer and the product. And the product and the bank. And the engineers and the sales people. Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder and CEO of the business messaging software company Slack, holds undergraduate and Masters degrees in philosophy. He credits his ability to think and write clearly, and to reject conventional thinking, on his humanities degree. As machine learning and AI become more prevalent in the workplace, there’s a good chance that computers will replace many technical positions. At that point, the real value-add will be from people that can creatively problem solve, work collaboratively and communicate well across media. It’s helpful to have an understanding of the technical, but the core skills required for these roles will have nothing to do with STEM.

Jack Ma, the co-founder and chairman of tech conglomerate Alibaba and one of the most successful people in China, underscored this sentiment in an internal speech to employees. China, whose school system historically focused on test scores to the exclusion of all other skills, is now recognizing the paramount importance of entrepreneurship and innovation to China’s future. Jack Ma was an English major! There is a serious risk that too much focus on technical disciplines will crowd out the development of creativity, critical thinking and communication skills that are essential to success in business in the 21st century.

We’d all love to see into the future, and to know what we should teach our kids so they are resilient and adaptable in the 21st century. STEM is undoubtedly useful for jobs today and in the future, but so are the skills that come from the humanities and social sciences. Technical professionals readily admit that they are often out of their depth when it comes to employing these “soft skills”. And everyone appreciates having a career that is interesting and personally satisfying. It’s not time to start rejecting STEM, but we should have a more thoughtful conversation as to where it fits into the bigger picture in our schools and our workplace. STEM is great for people who love science and math. Let’s make room in our education system for - and acknowledge the many important contributions of - all of the people that don’t.