Why We Need An Alliance Between Arts Majors and STEM Majors

We've all heard the stereotypes. Liberal arts majors (encompassing the humanities, social sciences, literature, visual arts, etc.) are impractical and unnecessary, while STEM majors (encompassing science, technology, engineering and math) are smart but boring. We laugh at them, but in doing so, we're ignoring the harm that comes from pitting these two broad groups of study against one another.

The arts and STEM are inarguably two of the most important facets of our society, yet they are dependent on a single thing to keep them alive: funding. Money makes the world go round, right?

This is largely why they have been pitted against one another. In schools, departments fight for limited funding, causing friction and resentment when some departments receive more or less. This continues in institutions of higher education such as universities and colleges, and expands into the working world. Certain funds are allocated for the arts and STEM in educational settings, and this causes tension between those who choose to continue their education and careers in one of those two fields. That's what causes this divide between arts and STEM majors - a divide that has severely widened in recent years.

In North America, more students are pursuing post-secondary education than ever before. With an ever-crowded job market and climbing costs of tuition, this has made the decision to choose a major incredibly critical. And due to these factors, more and more students are choosing STEM over liberal arts majors.

Unfortunately, in the world we live in, we often have to choose between doing what we love, and doing what will make us enough money to live. That's how we've wound up with a 43% increase in STEM majors over the past 20 years, while the number of arts majors has remained largely stagnant. With this increased interest in STEM, our culture has shifted. Science and its pursuits are now respected and admired, but this has come at a cost - by elevating STEM, the arts are degraded.

But this isn't how things should be. We deserve a world where the arts and STEM can flourish without needing to compete with one another. They are both so intrinsically vital to our society, and we need them both for the world to not just survive, but thrive. We need them both for the sake and advancement of humanity.

As I mentioned earlier, our society revolves around money. And money is used to buy things, which are usually created by people educated and/or skilled in STEM and the arts. STEM creates tangible things - like computers and cars and a million other things that can be mass-produced and sold - but the arts doesn't (at least, not in the same way). And that's part of why it's been de-valued in society in recent years.

This is the crux of the problem. STEM and STEM majors are valued by society by the products they produce, but not because society innately values those ideas. Therefore, it's utterly absurd that society has fooled us into believing that STEM majors are superior to arts majors when society doesn't truly value them at all. It's simply a ploy to get more products that can be exploited for monetary value.

This is why I believe that STEM majors and arts majors need to band together. Society doesn't want to lose money by properly funding both STEM and the arts, so we need to form an alliance so that we can rise above this mindset and create a world where both groups can be free to explore and create without limitations.

With that being said, here are my arguments as to why we should form an alliance between STEM and arts majors:

1. Both STEM and liberal arts require hard work and creativity.

Look, labour is labour. STEM majors are often required to write lab reports and solve arduous math problems while liberal arts majors are often required to write essays and do lengthy readings. Of course, this varies with different majors within the two groups, but the bottom line is that both STEM and liberal arts majors are required to do a lot of work and put a lot of effort into their education. Therefore, it's not productive to compare these different forms of labour; they're both challenging in their own way.

Also, along with hard work, both liberal arts and STEM majors are required to be creative. It's easy to understand why this is true in the arts, but STEM requires just as much creativity and innovation. Through project and products, STEM majors are required to create tangible things that can be sold (like vaccines, cars, phones, and a million other things), just like art majors. And in order to create these things, they must be unique - a quality that is only attained through creativity.

2. Both STEM and liberal arts are theoretical and abstract.

There are so many theories and concepts to be learned in both STEM and the arts. Again, this does vary with different majors within each of these groups, but it's true that both STEM and the arts are required to learn and apply many complicated and abstract theories. For example, in STEM, there are many theoretical laws in the physical sciences (like thermodynamics, physics, etc.), and in liberal arts, there are many theories about visual arts, politics and philosophy, to name a few. All of these countless theories and abstract ideas are part of what unites STEM and the arts - both of these groups aim to create rules that we can use to make sense of our reality. And thanks to them, we understand our world just a little bit more.

3. Both STEM and liberal arts are primarily valued for their monetary value; not for their own inherent worth.

Despite appearances, our society doesn't fundamentally value the arts or STEM. It values what the physical things they produce, but not their theories, knowledge, or ideas. And the same goes for not only liberal arts and STEM students, but for people who work in either of these fields.

Society loves it when Apple releases a new iPhone and when Tesla releases a solar-powered car, but hates it when scientists say that people need to stay home to curb the spread of a deadly virus that has killed millions of people. Society also loves it when artists like Taylor Swift and Britney Spears create content that can be sold, but hates it when they call out the inequalities and pressures that they face in the spotlight. It's sad, but it's true. Our world loves products and things that can be exploited for money, and in STEM and the arts, it's what they can produce that is truly valued; not the makers themselves.

It's pretty sad that the world is this way, because in the end, it's the arts and STEM that advance and expand the horizons of humanity. It's arts and STEM majors who create and explore, turning our world into a better place. And that's why arts and STEM majors shouldn't be pitted against one another; instead, we should be free to learn and create without monetary limitations.

Arts and STEM, and those who study both, are amazing in their own ways, and we need them both for our world to thrive. It's time that we stop contrasting them, and instead, form an alliance between them.

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