About education: Are STEM courses harder than humanities?
Two students. Both in the same generation. Both have the same high grade average. Their classes and their difficulty rates are different though. One student has humanities classes as their advanced courses, while their mathematics and sciences as standard. The other’s advanced classes are mathematics and science and their standard courses are humanities. Is there a difference?
In most educational institutions, ranging from the elementary years to university/college years, this preconception that STEM classes are more skill-requiring and difficult than humanities has followed aspiring artists and writers through their educational career. Although, yes, an A+ in an advanced English course is impressive, does it really beat an A+ in a mathematics class?
When I’m stressing about school to others, it’s not odd for the regular, “But your science and math classes aren’t higher level, right?” Cue silent pause.
I speak for the dozens of students in high school who are equally stressed and panicky with a Trig exam in front of them but flourish under critical thinking for essays. But after looking into this issue, I found this idea was not only present in higher education as well but in the society of leading countries.
To first address this idea in a college/university setting, according to Amelia Lockhart-Hourigan, a student pursuing a field in English Language and Literature in The University of Edinburg details how she “worked extremely hard to get into Edinburgh Uni, which happens to be one of the best universities in the world, specifically for [her] chosen subject. Despite how hard [she] worked to achieve what [she] did, [she] still finds [her] intelligence and the value of [her] degree coming into question. Why do so many people think humanities degrees are worth less than STEM?”
As a student in The International Baccalaureate (IB) program, I’ve seen my own classmates oftentimes value and measure intelligence through skill in STEM. Rather than praise the student community with remarks on their own individual talents, even teachers and counselors have begun taking priority in admiring these STEM students. I myself have begun questioning my intelligence through my STEM classes, sometimes even wishing to be more skilled and successful in my chemistry class than in my literature. But while reading over The Washington Post’s essay examining the importance of humanities classes, writer Valerie Strauss explains how
“Rather than defining the fields within humanities, we can try to explain what study in the humanities does. We might say fields within the humanities study and analyze artifacts that are created by human beings, such as literature, music, art, etc. We might say the humanities help us to analyze and grapple with complex moral issues, help us understand what goes on inside of us, that is, show us what it means to be a human being. In reaction to such definitions, however, the nonbelievers reject the need to study the humanities; after all, they are human beings, they grapple with complex issues pretty much on a daily basis.”
Despite my own highschool peers and even some of my teachers doubting the difficulty and necessity of my language and social science courses, I realize this argument should not be about comparing and scoring, but about accepting skill and passion for different subjects. After all, it’s not rocket science (unless quite literally you’re a STEM major).
Strauss, V. (2019, April 05). Analysis | Why we still need to study the humanities in a STEM world. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/10/18/why-we-still-need-to-study-the-humanities-in-a-stem-world/
Lockhart-Hourigan, A. (2020, June 29). I study humanities and I’m tired of people making fun of my degree. Retrieved from https://thetab.com/uk/edinburgh/2020/06/23/i-study-humanities-and-im-tired-of-people-making-fun-of-my-degree-66173
