One overlooked detail here is that FIRST does not have a monopoly on STEM outreach. School districts in my area advertise their STEM programs as well, and sometimes even tried to advertise STEAM, to little effect. The whole point to STEM is to be a focused path of education, and when STEAM is mentioned, it reaches well beyond CAD or design. So perhaps I'm just a bit jaded from my prior experience with STEAM. Again, not that art school is useless; as I and others have said before, art can be extraordinarily complex if rigor is applied. STEAM becomes too broad and meaningless, and devolves into a buzzword.
And this is what I hear from parents, mind you, not just my singular opinion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)
I don't really care either way but one thing I do notice is that art is generally looked down upon at least by young people. All the unemployment or useless art degree jokes/memes are very common on social media and at least in my area, engineering students generally look down on art. To claim that STEM people and students already know art is important isn't quite accurate. That said the same could be said for almost every other discipline such as communication skills, English, and business.
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Stereotypes about engineers looking down upon art majors is also an exaggeration. Sure, I've made jokes about it, and I cannot for the life of me understand the utility of some specific degrees, but I and many engineers love Steve Vai, of Frank Zappa fame, who attended the Berklee College of Music. Or Quincy Jones, or Joey Kramer of Aerosmith, both of whom also went to that institution.
Or Jimmy Page, who has no musical education.
Or Brian May, who actually went to university as a physics major.
By the way, prejudice based on what major you have does cut both ways, believe it or not. I've heard plenty of art majors scoff at engineers.