Fareed Zakaria: STEM Education Is Important, But Not Everything

The globe is constantly changing, merely the breakneck footstep of technology innovation makes it hard for educators and parents to prepare students for an uncertain time to come.

Many schools have wisely prioritized Scientific discipline Technology, Engineering science, and Math (STEM) in their curriculum, simply in our button to teach the cold, difficult, and rational, we should not forget the humanities.

"A lot of what makes yous succeed in life is not related to Stalk. They are things similar how to think clearly, how to limited yourself conspicuously, how to write clearly, and the ability to place things in context," explains Fareed Zakaria, author, Washington Post columnist, and host of CNN'due south Fareed Zakaria GPS. "I would argue that we're inbound a stage where those traits that I simply described volition really be more important, because computers are increasingly able to do routine coding. Computers are able to practise some of those rote, repetitive skills that people used to learn technical skills for. But what a reckoner can't do is be homo."

Zakaria stopped by PCMag'south offices for an episode of our interview series, The Convo, during which he discussed how to prepare children for a world that volition be increasingly mechanized and automatic. Unfortunately, there are no elementary answers to that question.

Zakaria'due south goal is to put complex, global socio-economical forces in context and translate them for the average person. Part of this mission led him to write In Defence of a Liberal Instruction terminal twelvemonth, in which he argues that while math and science are of import, the humanities (arts, literature, theater, music) should not exist forgotten. This isn't some vague notion of touchy-feely kumbaya-ness. The humanities are necessary to cultivate marketable skills that can't be replicated by a machine.

"There's a bigger issue I'one thousand raising of 'what does it mean to be human?,' simply surely some of it is these creative skills, these soft skills, and these contextual skills. And the final part is the ability to work together. People have to want to piece of work with you. That'southward an incredible skill to have in life—to make people want to piece of work with you," he says.

Fareed Zakaria

These soft skills are not things you lot easily pick up in an engineering or biology class. They are cultivated though social interactions and connecting with others by experiencing their art.

Those who are best prepared for the future have mastered technical and human skills. "You've got to be able to exercise all of that," Zakaria says. "There are some people who are technically proficient, and they should definitely do applied science and science or whatever. Simply there are others who don't. Each should know a fiddling virtually each other'due south field. Simply when yous listen to Steve Jobs when he announced the iPad, he said the Dna of Apple was the marrying of the technical with the liberal arts—I recall that'south the sweet spot."

The Convo is PCMag'due south interview series hosted by features editor Evan Dashevsky (@haldash). Each episode is broadcast live on PCMag'southward Facebook folio, where viewers are invited to ask guests questions in the comments. Episodes are then posted on our YouTube page and bachelor every bit an audio podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes or the podcast platform of your choice.