A recent trend has schools and businesses focusing on developing STEM programming, which targets skills in science, technology, engineering and math.
The concern is that students are not graduating with the skills to meet the demand for them in the job market.
But what about arts education?
Studies show that employers are looking for new hires that are creative and innovative.
It is important that schools not forget the value of arts education.
A 2013 report by Let’s Talk Science, a science outreach charity, found that high school students’ interest in science decreases with age.
According to the report, less than 50 per cent of students complete senior STEM courses, but 70 per cent of top jobs in Canada require a STEM education.
This has technology companies worried about finding new employees in the future.
The Globe and Mail published an article on Oct. 28 detailing various programs that tech giants have invested in to try to increase the number of students staying in STEM courses.
In October, Google Canada donated $1.5 million to Actua, a network of colleges and universities that delivers STEM programming to more than 225,000 young people.
This funding is being used for workshops and camps that will offer hands-on computer science education.
Similarly, Cisco Canada has developed a mentorship program for its computer engineers to mentor more than 400 high school and post-secondary students who will help them during the 2015 Toronto Pan Am games.
Microsoft Canada also added partnerships with youth-focused non-profits to teach free courses in code-making and games.
While these initiatives are positive for students and will offer them more experience with STEM programming, it is essential that arts education maintains a solid presence in academia.
LinkedIn conducted a study in in July, which surveyed more than 1,400 U.S. hiring managers at Fortune 500 companies to find out what skills companies are looking for in new hires. Creativity was among the top choices and arts education is key to students gaining that skill.
Assignments that push students to be imaginative teach them how to be creative.
Visual arts and creative writing are two facets of arts education that do this.
Courses in these areas have less to do with memorizing and more to do with experimenting and trying new techniques and styles. Having the ability to do this is an asset in the working world.
Exposure to the arts also boosts educational success in general.
A study on the impact of arts education on students’ learning abilities was conducted last year by the Department of Education at the University of Arkansas.
Students were chosen by lottery to go on a field trip to an arts museum. Researchers studied their recall afterwards and compared it with that of students who learned about the same art and history in the classroom.
The study showed that students retained a great deal of factual information from their tours and were able to recall details about the paintings they had seen at higher rates than those who did not attend the museum.
Though this study showed that culturally enriched field trips were beneficial to students’ learning, the researchers say these types of field trips are in decline.
For example, the Field Museum in Chicago has seen the number of students touring the museum drop to 200,000 from 300,000 each year.
If funding for schools shifts to focus primarily on STEM programming, beneficial opportunities, such as educational field trips to museums and exhibits will continue to decline.
In an interview with The Independent, Paul Collard, chief executive at Creativity, Culture and Education – an international foundation dedicated to creative learning –said that “creative learners are curious, disciplined, resilient, collaborative and imaginative.”
Collard said creative teaching is what nurtures and develops those skills by challenging pupils rather than directing them.
Perhaps the answer to encouraging STEM programming while remembering the value of arts education is, as often as possible, to combine the two.
Some creative education models include projects such as using basic coding to compose and improvise digital music.
Projects such as this teach the digital skills needed in STEM industries while increasing students’ willingness to experiment and create.
Innovative changes to the curriculum are what will better prepare students for the job market not shifting focus and forgetting the benefits of other types of education.