We should STEAM instead of STEM

I recently had a conversation with a great storyteller/story collector Frances Flemming Chavous, and she introduced me to the term STEAM.  Many folks are familiar with the term STEM, an anagram for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  These are the subject areas receiving much attention these days in our educational system.  As well, they are receiving much support from industries and corporations who partner with school systems.  One idea is that the emphasis will help us catch up to and keep pace with other countries who actually are surpassing us in STEM areas.  The push is necessary, or we are going to get left behind especially as it concerns business and industry.

A question arises, though.  Once our schools turn out more graduates who excel in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, will they also be able to communicate?  One might reply, well of course they can.  They master technology which opens nearly limitless avenues of communication.  They can tweet, blog and share.  They can vine, they can post and they can pin.  They can easily build tremendous platforms which they can use to submit tremendous amounts of information.  Here then might be a bigger question.  Will they be able to communicate such tremendous amounts of information, complex information, in ways that make sense to a would-be consumer of their innovation?

OR as my father rather eloquently puts it, "Can they put the hay down where the horses can get it?"

Finding positive answers to such queries might be determined by the difference between STEM and STEAM.  The A stands for Arts.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about.  With all of our progress in developing digital cameras, photography itself cannot be reduced to a tightly knit conglomeration of math, physics, electronics and mechanics.  We could also invent a robot which could adjust the aperture and the film speed and even "push the button" (actually that might be what happens when a novice buys an expensive camera and automatically dubs himself a photographer).  Instead, we need an artist.  In order for the pictures to communicate to an audience, the photographer must observe, reason and feel.  We want to see (and buy) photographs that are the results of the creative process.

In our schools, though, the emphasis is STEM.  Instruction time in the classroom is dedicated to the standards, or as I crudely say, "teaching to the test".  We need the A.  We need the arts.  The case can be made that it will help us be better communicators.  The arts can also help make us better innovators.

Here's one group working to make this happen:  http://stemtosteam.org/

Storytelling can be some of the vapor in STEAM.  On one hand it can help to pull students out of their shells to get them talking with each other as well as challenging them to learn the soft skills which might help them explain their world-changing invention as they're being interviewed on Good Morning America.  On the other hand, storytelling can be an essential part of helping our students learn to invent and innovate with a purpose.  It might even help tomorrow's innovators understand a sense of calling and vocation in their chosen fields.  The story they can tell about their innovation, then, moves away being concerned about getting rich off their invention and moves toward why and to whom it is important.  It will be a story they tell about what's possible.  It will be a story they tell about themselves and to themselves.

Ministries can help generate some STEAM, too.  Our congregations can be a part of this, but we will have to imagine the possibilities and work to make them happen.  Here are a couple ideas (of course, you should come us with many more):

• If your church is near a school, get involved.  Be a good neighbor to that school.  Send volunteers.  Help the the students, the teachers, the classes and classrooms have the supplies and furnishings they need.  Encourage the faculty and staff.  If possible, say it with brownies!
• A little more specific, if there isn't room in the curriculum for it, your congregation could start an after school arts program.  Whether it's the visual or performing arts, it has a payoff in personal development for the students.  Also, you could be training the next contributors to how the church's ministry is expressed through art.  It's a win-win situation.  
• Did I mention it would take work?

Story helps drive innovation.  Telling our stories can make dreams into reality and make a difference in the world.  It might even win a Nobel prize in physics.