STEM -- not the play -- is the thing in America.
STEM, of course, refers to "Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics" and is usually invoked in calls for economic or educational reform.
Simply put, we always need more STEM.
That is particularly true in my hometown, Detroit, where STEM always has been the thing (that last point might give STEM pushers some pause; organizing a culture exclusively around STEM did not create an "all's well that ends well" scenario here ...but we shall come back to that one).
If I read the papers, watch TV, listen to the local school board, attend to my university administration, heed the Governor, or talk to just about anybody I begin to think that my life's work is, well . . . . not STEM.
I feel useless, obsolete. Like Chrysler.
I feel this most acutely during the state's media fest called the "Mackinac Policy Conference" where calls for more STEM come on an hourly basis from a lovely spot on the planet that, historically speaking, has very little to do with STEM.
Indeed, on Mackinac Island, you can't drive cars, only ride bikes.
Fortunately, for my depressed state, I have pretty powerful coping mechanisms.
Namely, I am a white, heterosexual male, American, 50ish, tall, who grew up post-War in the midwest, and my mother loved me very much. She still does, even though I don't call nearly enough.
This all means I have my political demographic's extraordinary sense of entitlement, a sense of entitlement based -- as most senses of entitlement are -- on pure dumb historical luck.While not a member of the 1% (English Professor, no family money), I am a member of the luckiest subset of humans to have lived on the planet.
Correspondingly, in the spirit of innovation, disruption, and entrepeneurship that drives true STEM believers I am not going to give in to STEM depression, but re-invent or recast STEM in my own image.
You see, I do think there is a STEM crisis.
But my STEM crisis is a bit different. I think We have a "Shakespeare, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics" crisis.
S(hakespeare)TEM.
We simply don't know how to read and interpret scenes, particularly in a dramatic context. The latter is important because all we have at the moment in American politics are dramatic contexts, mini- stage plays being acted out in front us through media.
I don't mean to be overly aggressive in replacing "Science" with "Shakespeare". What you will, as you like it, and all that. I am not anti-science.
When people who call for STEM call for STEM they really don't want what most science folks count as science anyway. Science is expensive, it takes a long time, and it isn't always tied to the market. So I really don't feel like I am offending anyone. Frankly, I could drop the "M" as well as when people call for "Mathematics" they really aren't calling for Mathematicians. People care about pure Math folks as much as they do about Shakespeareans.
But I need the consonant to end the acronym. /So: Math stays.
Engineers, though, I know you have thin skins. I just don't know what I can do for you. Sorry.
But to the point: We need to get better at reading those plays that are staged for us by STEM crusaders and the best way to get good at reading plays is to study "the guy" himself.
England built an empire around him that lasted a couple hundred years.
Let's see what I can do from Detroit.
Here is my start.
When you hear a phrase or term or a name repeated often enough -- say, like, STEM -- blink. Hesitate. Become self-conscious. Become self-aware. Someone might not be telling the truth. Or they may be simply daft. Or, if you find yourself overusing a term like STEM, you might be going daft. Or, if someone is overusing a term, they might not have language for what they truly want to say and are relying on a single phrase as a kind of shorthand. We all do it. Nothing to be ashamed of, per se, but it isn't a high level of thinking.
Here, for example, is Shakespeare working this out in Richard II.
King Richard has just banished John of Gaunt's son, Bolingbroke, and Gaunt is upset. He is old, and knows if the banishment holds he won't see his son again. So Richard and Gaunt, who began the play as political allies, statesman who conceal their emotions, find themselves at odds. This is particularly hard on Gaunt -- not just because he has just lost a son -- but because he is a high ranking "company" man -- darn near King himself -- not used to being at odds with authority. Expressing rebellious thoughts is not his thing.
Richard asks, "How is't with aged Gaunt?"
Gaunt replies,
"O, how that name befits my composition!
Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old.
Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast,
And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?
For sleeping England long time have I watched;
Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt.
The pleasure that some fathers feed upon
Is my strict fast - I mean, my children's looks --
And, therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt.
Gaunt I am for the grave, gaunt as a grave,
Whose hollow womb inherits naught but bones. (2.1.73-83).
Richard immediately asks what an audience would be thinking: "Can sick men play so nicely with their names?"
In so doing, the playwright calls attention to the overuse, and calls attention to the reasons it might be produced here, now. The almost inane speech is tied to Gaunt's history, his current situation, his difficulty, and so on.
Shakespeare helps us read the scene by having Richard call attention to the overuse.
Gaunt is, again, trying to be rebellious. But, at his age, having never been so, he really is not good at it. Your average 8th grader, STEM interest or no, would give a snarkier, more effective answer.
That is the point.
So when you hear STEM over and over again -- for example, "STEM needs to STEM the tide of American's position as the STEM supporting the plant of the globe lest the Chinese STEM our growth" -- think of poor Gaunt trying to engage in a rhetorical battle.
Nothing is really being said when someone says STEM over and over again other than that someone is in a political fight.
