The importance of education in STEM is now receiving more and more attention in American schools and for good reason. While the state requires a basic level of study in humanities, further education in significant technical fields emphasized in STEM education will allow our society to progress as a whole.

An education at any school should allow a student to become articulate and well-rounded, but only a good school will give the student the environment to thrive in difficult subjects like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The world needs America to step up and take a more thorough approach to STEM education. It needs a cure for cancer, for AIDS, for heart disease. The world needs action, and STEM education is a plan for action.

With Saudi Arabia and Iran taking control of the oil industry and regulating the prices, the future is bleak for conventional fossil fuels, which indicates an economic need for alternative energy for America and all UN countries. Without a focus on STEM, youth are not pushed towards becoming the world’s future researchers who can develop the skills and interests to pursue a better tomorrow.

As the generation of Baby Boomers becomes older, they will need medical attention. Because of this, and a declining interest in the healthcare field, Dr. Richard Cooper from the University of Pennsylvania estimated a shortage of 200,000 physicians between the years 2020 and 2025.

This is terrifying.

Encouraging studies in humanities from a young age is encouraging students a wider field of knowledge, but the job opportunities for those humanities-focused educations are much more narrow than those with expertise in STEM fields. Thus, it is a no-brainer to encourage students toward a field of opportunity and innovation rather than one of culture.

Not only are the opportunities for STEM majors greater in number, but they are greater in quality. PayScale.com, an organization dedicated to researching and organizing the salaries of careers, puts out a list of the 15 highest paid college majors which all happened to be STEM majors. A STEM education sets up students for financial success.

The opportunities for jobs in the humanities pale in comparison. Mastery of complex language can provide a path to legal professions while studies in history or philosophy often lead to teaching history and philosophy.

The problem is not with the humanities themselves, it is that they are not suited towards most professional careers in America. Humanities should be learned outside of the academic setting and should be an addition to character as opposed to an addition to resumes.

Encouraging STEM education especially for the lower class and lower-middle class students will help to tear down socioeconomic barriers because the young upper-middle class students and upper class students often wander into liberal arts school for a well-rounded education.

While it is clear all knowledge is important and should be pursued, our education system must realize that with the limited time we have on Earth, we must put our effort into meeting our societal needs first and foremost.

America should be pushing STEM fields more than ever. America needs nurses. America needs doctors. America needs alternative energy. America needs STEM.

Joe Kyburz is a Copy Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.