The part that really blows my mind is the kids who have published research papers but still don’t understand this. I know they understand the concept of a thesis statement! They know how to write a closing paragraph! Yet still, they’ll write a meandering essay about three unrelated topics with no attempt to tie them together.
It’s always the journalism kids that seem to actually understand how to write. The overfocus on STEM sucks.
My STEM college was still big on humanities. We were required to take a writing and communication class specifically focused on effective writing. They understood it doesn’t matter how good your engineering work is if you can’t convey it to anyone.
I think the problem is a more fundamental flaw in how we teach and convey ideas and a core problem with the education process.
I didn’t like having to take humanities classes in college but I’ve become an ardent supporter of it. Gen eds matter, a college degree is supposed to declare you generally educated but with a focus on something.
That’s at the college level though. Unfortunately, I work with high schoolers, and I have not seen the same levels of respect given to the humanities as I see STEM in US high schools. Hell, in some states they seem to straight up allow students to take more STEM courses in lieu of humanities.
The part that really blows my mind is the kids who have published research papers but still don’t understand this. I know they understand the concept of a thesis statement! They know how to write a closing paragraph! Yet still, they’ll write a meandering essay about three unrelated topics with no attempt to tie them together.
It’s always the journalism kids that seem to actually understand how to write. The overfocus on STEM sucks.
My STEM college was still big on humanities. We were required to take a writing and communication class specifically focused on effective writing. They understood it doesn’t matter how good your engineering work is if you can’t convey it to anyone.
I think the problem is a more fundamental flaw in how we teach and convey ideas and a core problem with the education process.
I didn’t like having to take humanities classes in college but I’ve become an ardent supporter of it. Gen eds matter, a college degree is supposed to declare you generally educated but with a focus on something.
That’s at the college level though. Unfortunately, I work with high schoolers, and I have not seen the same levels of respect given to the humanities as I see STEM in US high schools. Hell, in some states they seem to straight up allow students to take more STEM courses in lieu of humanities.