Why should people study STEM specifically? Maths is generally useful in life so basic algebra, trig and such makes sense. But I've never really understood why science should be mandatory in schools, beyond teaching kids about how the scientific method works and thus imparting some pro-empricism philosophical ideas.
If I had to choose skills that kids were forced to learn, I'd prioritise those that would stand to benefit them the greatest - so probably some form of home economics, sales & negotiating, psychology, and such. As far as universally useful skills go, most of STEM is near the bottom of the list.
[edit] to clarify my point:
- A subset of STEM (maths primarily) is pragmatically useful to basically everybody and should have greater emphasis in education
- most of STEM is not pragmatically useful to most people
- these non-everyday-pragmatic fields should be taught, and belong within general education, but are not special in contrast to other school topics - because the criteria of "especially good" in a school context are those with actual practical use in the student's life.
If I had to choose skills that kids were forced to learn, I'd prioritise those that would stand to benefit them the greatest - so probably some form of home economics, sales & negotiating, psychology, and such. As far as universally useful skills go, most of STEM is near the bottom of the list.
[edit] to clarify my point:
- A subset of STEM (maths primarily) is pragmatically useful to basically everybody and should have greater emphasis in education
- most of STEM is not pragmatically useful to most people
- these non-everyday-pragmatic fields should be taught, and belong within general education, but are not special in contrast to other school topics - because the criteria of "especially good" in a school context are those with actual practical use in the student's life.