Why is art an important additive to the STEM curriculum at Carver?
By: Anya Carter
January 23rd, 2023According to the U.S. Department of Education, Carver is a STEM school. STEM stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics”, and is a type of curriculum that has been criticized for the past few years. We have countless courses that fit under this curriculum. At Carver, students interested in these fields are hard pressed to find something that won’t enrich their interest in these subjects. But what about the students who are more artistically inclined, and why do they and our only Art teacher think that art is so important to add to STEM?
Our Art teacher Ms. Swift started working at Carver in 2005. She was originally a Computer Science teacher, but she was already an experienced artist. The principal at the time wanted to introduce an art program to the school, and knowing of Swift’s art qualifications, asked her to create it.
The art room.
“Unlike a lot of other big subjects there’s not a scripted curriculum for art. It's more like learning practices and things that people should know within art. I like that I can be different.”
Ms. Swift thinks that the most important thing about learning art is the relaxing atmosphere and freedom that students get in art classes.
“Something that I’ve always said since I was in school is that Art is that one place where you always have the best conversations with your closest friends," Swift said. "Because you never know what's going to come out of each day. You need that, both physically as a person and for your soul. You also just need that positive environment, because we can have all the stress in the world and be mathematical geniuses. But after a while we need some way to relieve that stress, and this is one of those places that helps us not go insane.”
Matilda Quartey is an 11th grader interested in art and animation. When she first started here at Carver, she was mostly interested in robotics. Her interests changed over time and she started growing an interest in art during quarantine. All of the time spent inside gave her the chance to watch more cartoons like The Owl House, Amphibia, and Miraculous Ladybug. Drawing the characters made her start changing her aspirations.
“I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love this!’ Quartey said. "So I just ended up falling in love with art more because of them.”
The lack of art courses or students interested in art never made her feel left out though, because she says that technology and art aren’t opposing forces. Technology has been evolving quite quickly, and many innovations have been put into question in the past. Things like racial injustices being carried out digitally and debates about the ethics of things like AI art and music are constant in this growing technological era. People argue that having an artistic eye when it comes to these things will cause less issues. An artist would be able to point out that facial recognition software would need to be able to pick up darker skin, unlike the CBP One immigration app controversy. Imigrants with darker skin weren’t recognized by the app, making it effectively harder for them to apply for asylum. Matilda recognizes that art is a vital part of creating good tech and machinery.
“I feel like being here with more of an interest in art isn't really that different for me. Art is still a part of the engineering process anyway, so I don’t feel super outcast.”
Illustration of a cardinal by Matilda Quartey.
Matilda thinks that art is an important thing for students, because it helps them learn to express themselves. Quite a few studies have gone into the effects that participating in art has on the human body. Participating in any kind of art has been proven to lower cortisol levels, cortisol being your body's main stress hormone. Depression has increased among teens over the years, especially over Covid Lockdown. More discussion about emotional intelligence and understanding oneself have been had in online spaces. However, Quartey has observed that many students are still struggling with expressing themselves and being self aware.
“After coming back I noticed that a lot of us don't really know how to express our emotions properly in a way that everybody can understand," Quartey said. "Art can explain it in a way where you don't have to use words if that's difficult for you!”
Naima Sanchez is a 12th grade artist, currently building up her portfolio and looking for art colleges to apply to. Her interest in art started by watching animators on YouTube like Vivziepop (who she denounces for any controversy she’s currently involved in). Currently, her main fortes are 2D art and animation and 3D modelling!
“I do a lot of other stuff actually," Sanchez said. "Way too many things to mention. I have practiced with clay before, it was really ugly though, so I didn't like it very much. So I'm gonna try again because it's really just about trying over and over again and experimenting with things.”
Unlike Matilda, Naima has found it incredibly hard to be an art focused student in a STEM school like Carver, comparing her situation to “putting a camel in a tundra”. She feels very left out due to the lack of other students interested in art that could understand her and cites a negative stigma of artistic ambitions in society as very discouraging.
Illustration of a sunrise by Matilda Quartey.
“It's just seen as a very baseless aspiration. It's treated like just something you do on the side, like nothing you can really do for real, even though there's a lot of evidence proving otherwise. Who doesn’t wanna pursue a career that’ll fulfill them?”
The lack of art stimulation in Carver has also been affecting Naima’s efforts at filling out her portfolio.
“It’s messing with my time a lot. It's hurting my creative efforts, because I'm constantly stressed out. I'm just constantly in environments that I really do not belong in and nothing's working.”
Naima thinks that art is an important addition to STEM because it allows students to develop their creative thinking skills. Art allows students to develop their own viewpoints and outlooks that can be used later to properly criticize and analyze the things around them. Since STEM subjects are cut and dry knowledge, a student without any art education may not learn how to develop their own creative eye, which could come in handy while furthering their STEM education if they choose to do so.
“You have to think creatively. And you can't just do that through teaching constant maths and sciences and engineering. That kind of liberty is just limited to explicitly any kind of creative field. It's all about thinking for yourself, rather than thinking in a linear path,” Sanchez said.
She also thinks about her attempts at getting into the High School For Creative & Performing Arts (CAPA) and how that affected her self esteem and made her feel like a bad artist at such a young age. While it’s easy to say that students interested in art should just go to arts focused schools, many of them are either expensive private schools or are so skill based that they discourage aspiring students.
“I sometimes still feel like that because I don't really have what I need to become the artist that I wanna be. Artists here do not have the place they need. We don't have the facilities we need to nurture other students outside of scientists and engineers. We need to open up.”
Students like Matilda and Naima who are interested in art don’t seem to be getting all of the focus and enrichment that they need to nurture their talents and find a place in the industry outside of Carver. There’s a general lack of more varied arts courses, like different mediums and even art history. The art room is just a leftover of the old gym and it requires a lot more space and attention before it can really be all that it can be. Ms. Swift’s “Class of 2019” goal was to make Carver into a STEAM school as opposed to a STEM school, but now it’s 2024. If we want any kind of change for our artists here, we’ll have to find more ways to tend to their needs, not just as students with hobbies but as future adults that will make a living with what they’ve learned.
“The arts are so so important," Swift said. "And they should be considered important. Just as much as the core subjects. That's the massive problem here. I think we need to really just consider creative minds for once instead of constant linear thinking.”