Liberal arts degrees vital to education

Computer languages. Bugs. Robots. Cells. Bunsen burners and chemicals.

All these appeal to the many high school students in America who aspire to become doctors, engineers, astronauts or more.

Yet there are also students who cringe at the thought of going to math class and doing homework full of algebra and integrals, or those who dread chemistry labs and the tedious memorization of the different enzymes in cells. It’s important that schools don’t leave these students behind.

Over the years, America has been constantly fretting over students’ lower test scores in math and science compared to the higher scores of students in many other industrialized countries such as China and Singapore. Teachers and politicians, determined to narrow the gap, advocate for students to focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees rather than on liberal arts degrees. Some have even argued that universities should stop subsidizing liberal arts degrees altogether. According to surveys, the number of students with STEM majors has indeed increased in recent years.

However, more students majoring in STEM have begun to change their minds in college. In a Nov. 4 article in the New York Times, author Christopher Drew noted that almost 40 percent of STEM students either fail to get their degrees or switch to different majors. For pre-med students, the number rises to almost 60 percent.

Many of these students do not realize the competitiveness and difficulty of STEM majors when they choose them. As time progresses, they begin to realize that they do not love the subjects enough to get little sleep for most of the year, put all of their grades on the line to stay in their difficult classes or give up their futures to a career they dislike.

Due to America’s below average scores, colleges need to sufficiently inform students about the difficulty and necessity of STEM majors. Then the students can decide whether they love the subject enough to continue or will suffer through for hope of a brighter future.

If the students who thought they love math and science cannot succeed, then teachers and parents can hardly push the students who already know they do not appreciate those subjects early in middle school or high school.

As Steve Jobs mentioned in his 2005 commencement address to Stanford grads, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Different students find their calling in English, history, drama or music. They may face the jeers of peers who think that one can hardly make a living out of English or music. Arguably in today’s economy STEM majors can provide higher-paid jobs after arduous years in universities. Liberal arts majors may not find jobs that pay as well, but at least the students do what they love. For those students, colleges should not stop subsidizing their degrees.

In order to combat America’s falling behind in math and science, schools should still encourage students to enter the STEM fields, but school officials should tread lightly. It would only hurt if they sent unprepared students in a direction they would not succeed in. Schools, for example, can compile a certain group or percentage of students to target with extra information and supplies.

College is not the be-all and end-all of learning in life. It is merely another step in education that provides more choices than earlier stages do. Just as STEM majors can choose to switch, liberal arts majors can change their minds, even if switching takes more years of hard work.