Instead of STEAM, why not (STEAAM) - by Innocent Benedict

Every time people in Nigeria talk about university degrees someone always says the thing:"Arts courses are useless.""Social sciences are for people who could not get into medicine.""Do not waste your childs future studying English, Sociology or History."Let us stop and think about this for a moment.If arts and social science degrees are really useless then who creates the systems that our society uses?Who writes the laws that a country follows?Who figures out why economies do well or do poorly?Who understands why people in a community fight or work together?Who comes up with policy?Who helps countries work together peacefully?Who studies how people behave so that organizations can work properly?These things all come from the Social Sciences and the Humanities.Subjects like Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology and History are not just nice to know.They are the tools that societies use to understand themselves.In many conversations in Nigeria people make fun of these subjects as if they are not important.However there is a truth that's hard to hear.A country that does not care about studying its society will have a hard time understanding itself.Engineers can build roads and bridges.Doctors can cure diseases.Who studies the systems that decide whether a society does well or poorly?That work is done in the sciences.Look at the powerful countries in the world.They spend a lot of money on research in economics, behavioral science, public policy and political analysis.These subjects help them make plans for their economy and keep their country safe.Meanwhile in our conversations we make jokes about fields of study.The funny thing is that many Nigerians who move to countries like the United States, United Kingdom and Canada find out that these same degrees can lead to careers, in policy, research, consulting, development work, diplomacy, media strategy and leadership.The degree itself did not suddenly become valuable.The new environment just knew how to make use of it.Maybe the problem is not the subject itself.Maybe the real problem is that we have created a system where a few jobs are clearly defined while others are not supported well.Instead of asking "Are arts and social science degrees useless?"maybe we should ask a harder question:what happens to a society that stops taking the study of itself seriously? ME: Yes, mankind will know no peace or real value for its humanity until the so called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education becomes STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education.

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