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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| 2019 grads who majored in STEM now boast the best starting salaries |
| 2019-11-05 |
| [The College Fix] My 11-year-old daughter was recently asked by her school to judge her strengths and weaknesses as a student. One of her self-admitted weaknesses is her sloppy handwriting. The survey asked her about room for improvement, and her answer was both humorous and telling: "It doesn’t matter because we live in a digital age." How true. I am child of the 80s and 90s. I came of age at a time when cell phones and the World Wide Web were just ideas and computers were starting to become a thing. I actually recall writing stories in fourth grade on a typewriter ‐ a typewriter! Today, my daughter is surrounded by and immersed in technology in many ways, both educationally and for recreation ‐ and for better or worse. But when we discuss college I can’t help but emphasize to her, if she is going to major in anything, it mind as well be in STEM, a.k.a. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. She wants to be a novelist, and I told her that’s fine, that’s great, that’s wonderful. Write on the side until you get published, and in the meantime, invest in a college education that can actually pay off and provide a real job until you’re the next Stephen King. I was reminded of this conversation as a recent press release crossed my desk (wait, scratch that ‐ crossed my inbox I mean), subject line: "Preliminary Salaries Show STEM Majors Lead Class of 2019." The results of the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Fall 2019 salary survey show that "at this early juncture, graduates in the computer and information sciences ($81,292), engineering ($69,180), mathematics and statistics ($68,785), and engineering technologies ($60,473) disciplines are leading the Class of 2019 in terms of average starting salary." |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #9 It's been a long road from glyph to letter. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-11-05 15:23 |
| #8 I expect the next generation will be using voice recognition software. Funny thing, I recall H. Beam Piper's Null-ABC(1953)(free ePub link) where being literate was subversive... |
| Posted by: magpie 2019-11-05 13:31 |
| #7 I blame post modernism for at least part of the chaos. STEM is valued because it put emphasis on finding the RIGHT answer, not just your answer. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2019-11-05 12:39 |
| #6 I'm with Lex. There is also an underlying connexion between legible, appealing script or even typed communication, and the confidence which comes from a well adjusted psyche. I don't mean grandiose loops and swirls of royal blue on scented paper, or tiny dots on the 'i's and perfectly oval 'O's. Just an understandable script, with clear words that convey clear ideas. My two cents. I believe a conscious attempt to not improve illegible handwriting is simply the sign of an illegible conscience. Warped, confused and liable to be swayed by assertive people. A schmuck. While I can't blame an 11 year old kid for an easy out like that, an adolescent who fails to develop a legible hand in the modern world would be somewhat of a schmuck. And so would be a parent or teacher for not correcting that. And STEM is also not for schmucks. When we learn to write, we also learn to control the flow of our thoughts, the ink on paper a veritable parallel for the actual conversation occurring within. Graphologists and neurobiologists have proved that consciously altering one's handwriting can actually improve the neuronal connectivity for certain intellectual activity. Also proved is the retardation of neuronal connectivity with increased reliance on 'assists' like grammar-check and auto-correct. Our current generation of cut-paste, newspeak adept journalists is a product of just that. There is no music to their thoughts, no conviction. Just a cacophony of impatient urges and exultation of foolish pride. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-11-05 11:00 |
| #5 And here I thought it would be Gender Studies.... |
| Posted by: Warthog 2019-11-05 10:43 |
| #4 Much of the blame for our society's current confusion and shitty political class can be attributed to the demise of the humanities over the last 40 years. Sloppy thinking, shitty values: these are precisely those flaws which a proper humanities education will correct. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-11-05 10:22 |
| #3 Sorry but this is wrong-headed. If you can't write clearly--I'm not referring to handwriting but to the expression of ideas in clear and compelling prose--then you will be hard-pressed to think clearly. STEM is not enough. Logic is expressed in language. A society that is badly trained in the humanities would be like the early 19c Union Army and its STEM-lopsided leadership in the era preceding those great writers and clear thinkers, Lincoln and Grant: numerate, scientifically literate, and incompetent. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-11-05 10:18 |
| #2 Higher salaries are obviously racist and sexist. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2019-11-05 10:03 |
| #1 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Is there any other pursuits besides Medicine and Agriculture that a state university system needs to offer that can not be done by private colleges? Farm teams for professional sports and departments created for students who 'earn' a worthless degree in studies sold by said universities do not come to mind. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-11-05 08:10 |
