STEM education, short for science, technology, engineering and math, is demanding for more time to enhance public understanding of engineering and its underlying science(National Academy of Engineering,n.d.). However, the increased time in STEM education means decreased time in language arts which may lead to two main disadvantages-difficulty in communication and understanding, and poor imagination. Language arts, defined as the general academic subject area in comprehension of both written and oral language in Wikipedia, include five main branches, namely, reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing(Wikipedia,n.d.). When dealing with science problems, if we do not know how to express our opinions properly and precisely, our listeners will be puzzled that they go to a different direction. For example, how will we understand the sentence, “for a point not falling in a given straight line, there will be one line passing through the point parallel to the given straight line.” Typically, we know there will be one line fulfilling the condition, but how many lines will also fit in? What if we redefine the sentence by adding “exactly”, for instance, “there will be exactly one line …” The meaning of the statement is much clearer for we know there will be one and exactly one. Consequently, if we are not good at language arts, we may get trouble or meet trouble in STEM education. Sometimes the trouble may be fatal because the concept we get perhaps is totally wrong. Despite the trouble caused in the communication and understanding, our imagination may also be trapped by poor language arts. How will you describe the world when you get up on a winter day and find that the whole world is covered with snow? Will you say, “Ah, the world is covered with solid water with litter dust in it,” or “the world is hidden under the mantle of a huge woolen carpet?” This funny question may come about if we focus on STEM education rather than language arts. For a long time, we first appreciate the beautiful world and then discover how the nature cooperates. Therefore, in modern blooming industrial development, the language arts still play an important role in not only our education, but also our lives. The time spent on the STEM and language arts education should be balanced in order for people to communicate and understand properly and appreciate the world in two different but complementary ways.
References
[1] National Academy of Engineering.(n.d.) Introduction to the grand challenges of engineering. Retrieved Feb. 2008, from
http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221/aspx
[2] Wikipedia.(n.d.) Retrieved Sep 3rd, 2008,fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_arts
References
[1] National Academy of Engineering.(n.d.) Introduction to the grand challenges of engineering. Retrieved Feb. 2008, from
http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221/aspx
[2] Wikipedia.(n.d.) Retrieved Sep 3rd, 2008,fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_arts
