Sara Campbell B5 Fine Arts vs.

STEM: The Ultimate Showdown While there are many fields of study, they are often categorized into just two groups: STEM and the humanities. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, while the humanities include subjects dealing with human culture, such as history, languages, and the arts. In most public schools the core curriculum focuses heavily on STEM; while some humanities fields are required, such as history and writing, the fine arts are just considered electives. This should not be the case. The arts are just as important as STEM, and it is therefore important for the former to be a part of public schools core curriculum. The core curriculums purpose is to provide a solid foundation for student learning. However, excluding the arts from that foundation is just like leaving out the last cornerstone in the foundation of a house. Without it, the whole building is unstable. By definition, core means the central or most important part of something ("Definition of core in English"). Determining the most important things to teach students must be a daunting task (kudos to the many people who worked it out), but theres nothing wrong with continuing to improve over time. In addition, core can also be defined as the part of something that is central to its existence or character ("Definition of core in English"). The humanities explore the core(s) of human beings as a whole, and self-expression through the arts is an important part of that. Stanford University values the humanities (which includes the arts) because through exploration of the humanities we learn how to think creatively and critically, to reason, and to ask questions ("Why are the humanities important?"). The skills learned from studying the humanities allow us to gain new insights into everything, including STEM ("Why are the humanities important?"). Young

people who are disengaged from schools and other community institutions are at the greatest risk of failure or harm (Weinberger). Therefore by picking and choosing whats important, rather than focussing on a broad scope of things, schools become much more ineffective. Knowledge or the lack of- can have a huge impact on peoples choices, so its important to include everything of value. As students get closer to college, they are constantly encouraged to be well-rounded, as colleges look for that in future students. Yet, most core curriculums are, arguably, not very wellrounded. It puts a huge focus on STEM, still requires a few years of history and language, but treats the arts as just leisure activities. Many teachers tell their students how the world doesnt have enough scientists, but by pushing so hard for STEM, theyre crowding out the humanities, which is only making students miss the arts more, and therefore embracing them instead. What they may not be realizing is that the arts actually improve students performance in STEM subjects. For example, 21% of eighth grade music students from low SES [socioeconomic status] households scored high in math compared to 11% of non-music low SES students. By grade 12, these figures were 33% and 16%, respectively (Weinberger). Which, scientifically, makes sense! There is a common misconception that people are left-brained or right-brained, meaning whichever side of the brain is dominant affects the personality of that person, making them either logical or creative. However, while certain activities do tend to take place more in certain regions of the brain (this is called lateralization), the fact is that neither side is ever dominant. Scientists at the University of Utah studied over one thousand brains and found no evidence that people preferentially use their left or right brain. All of the study participants were using their entire brain equally, throughout the course of the experiment (Wanjek). But thats not all. While the average person uses each side of the brain equally, they

dont necessarily at the same time. However, a collaborative study between the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences at Fort Benning, Georgia and the University of Melbourne, Australia found that mathematically gifted teens did better than average-ability teens and college students on tests that required the two halves of the brain to cooperate (O'Boyle). The students had to indicate whether two patterns matched or not but the letter patterns were presented in three conditions - one-sided, to the right hemisphere (left eye); one-sided, to the left hemisphere (right eye); or bilaterally (both eyes). In addition, there were different tasks designed to test the different sides of the brain (called local and global). For the average teens and college students, the left brain hemisphere was faster for local matches and the right brain hemisphere was faster for global matches. This fit prior research having to do with the lateralization of the brain, However, the mathematically gifted boys showed no such hemispheric differences. Those who were precocious in math were equally good at processing global and local elements with either hemisphere, suggesting more interactive, cooperative left and right brains. In addition, whereas average-ability boys and college students were slower on cooperative trials, which presented letter patterns on both sides of the screen, the math-gifted showed the opposite pattern. They were slower on one-sided trials, but when a task "asked" both sides of the brain to work together, they were considerably faster than the other boys (OBoyle). Despite the fact that the different sides of the brain do tend to process different kinds of information, the teens who were considered gifted at math (which is supposed to be a left-brain function), were better at using their whole brain in cooperation rather than just one at a time. It was the average teens that had an easier time of using one or the other. Theres a whole organization, called MuzArt World Foundation, whose purpose is to raise awareness to privately fund music and arts in education ("What is MuzArt?"). While its name is a combination of the words music and art, it actually places a high value on STEM subjects as well. In fact, they put a twist on the acronym STEM, by adding an A for arts,

turning it into STEAM. They believe that doing so can transform our public schools into a new exciting learning model[, STEAM,] that is taking the education world by storm and producing 97% graduation! ("What is MuzArt?"). Thats right: 97% graduation. In 2013, a post on the official blog of the U.S. Department of Education celebrated a graduation rate of 78.2%, which was apparently the highest since 1974 (Brenchley)! If you looked at these percentages like grades, 78.2% only equals a C, while 97% earns STEAM an A. No wonder the U.S. is considered average in education in comparison with other countries! But placing more importance on the arts is not only beneficial in school. Its proven that music makes people happier, and theres a reason people sing for joy; theres a direct relationship. Many people also use music and other arts as coping mechanisms. In a world where suicide and depression are spreading like wildfire, people need to know that there are positive ways to deal with their feelings. Some people can draw as easily as they can write a letter of the alphabet, and its not necessarily because they were born with a gift. Its because theyve got so much practice under their belt. So many people wish that theyd learned an instrument when they were young, or practiced drawing more, but as an adult learning those skills seems daunting, and so just dont. If they started at a young age, then they would be able to reap the rewards now. And its not necessarily that they didnt want to when they were kids, they may not have thought about it, or their parents couldnt afford to teach them, or some other reason. Schools are supposed to teach children valuable skills that theyll need later in life, but theyre evidently skipping a few. The arts are important to peoples happiness as well as their education. Thats why its not fair to deny that in schools. The world is always changing and progressing, and if we want it

to change in good ways, we need to make sure schools get the attention they need, and therefore kids the education they need, because the youth really is the future.

Works Cited

O'Boyle, Michael. "The Brains Left and Right Sides Seem to Work Together Better in Mathematically Gifted Middle-School Youth." American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association, 11 Apr 2004. Web. 4 Dec 2013. http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2004/04/interhemispheric.aspx Brenchley, Cameron. "High school graduate rate at highest level in three decades." The Official Blog of the U.S Department of Education. N.p., 23 Jan 2013. Web. 25 Nov 2013. http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/01/high-school-graduation-rate-at-highest-level-in-threedecades/ "Definition of core in English." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Web. 20 Nov 2013. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/core?q=core Wanjek, Christopher. "Left Brain vs. Right: It's a Myth, Research Finds." Livescience. N.p., 03 Sep 2013. Web. 4 Dec 2013. http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brainmyth.html Weinberger, N. "The Impact of the Arts on Learning." . The Selmer Company, n.d. Web. 4 Dec 2013. http://www.berksmusic.com/whymusic/whymusicimpactofthearts.html "What is MuzArt?." Muzart World Foundation: creatively changing lives. Muzart World Foundation. Web. 25 Nov 2013. http://muzartworld.org/about/ "Why are the humanities important?." the Human Experience: inside the humanities at Stanford University. Stanford University. Web. 4 Dec 2013. http://humanexperience.stanford.edu/why