From STEM to STEAM

For a long time now, higher education seems to have made science, technology, engineering and math more important for the job force than the arts. It is now becoming apparent that there needs to be a paradigm shift. This is not a new idea, it has been around for about 5 years or so.

It came to light very recently with Silicon Valley companies who realized that the job candidates that they were looking at were lacking more "left field" thinking. Yes, they were good at the sciences, math and technology, but not at the arts which focuses more on creativity. 
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There was an article in Forbes on this, http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2015/07/29/liberal-arts-degree-tech/ with a title named "That 'Useless' Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket" . Liberal arts programs like philosophy, history and drama bring a more creative bend to an employee. I am not saying that the STEM attributes aren't important, because they are. They just need to be married with more of the arts to have well-rounded employees. 

This past July there was a Arts Education Roundtable presented by the London Arts Council held at the downtown library in London and I was among many of the participants. This initial meeting was designed for artist-educators and arts organizations that currently have arts education programs,Future meetings of this group will include elementary, secondary and post-secondary educators, parents, as well as community and business/corporate sector representatives.

As an artist and educator, I look forward to future roundtables and to be part of a paradigm shift to not only make sure students, especially girls,  learn the importance of STEM but that STEAM will help them be more rounded in their endeavours.