What am I meant to make of this ministerial announcement:
STEAM not STEM - Minister recognises
importance of arts and humanities research
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts
MP emphasised the importance of arts, humanities and social science research in
the UK’s overall research base in a speech at the Policy Exchange on 4 January.
Declaring that he would not be shifting the balance of funding between
the main disciplines, Mr Willetts described the UK's research community as
"the most productive in the world…This broad research base emphatically
includes the arts, humanities and social sciences. They are all part of the
science and research ring fence." The Minister said he was attracted
to the idea that "instead of just thinking about STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Maths), we should add the Arts so it becomes
STEAM."
There seems to be some confusion about the difference between Science and Arts. Oh yes, of course, Art is the new Science. Roll on the first nuclear power station, mobile phone, space rocket installation ... now what dance shall we do ...
