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Comment by philipps | Hacker News Reader

I can’t say enough good things about public libraries. At the MIT Media Lab we started an innovation exchange with US libraries to co-develop new STEAM education programs together (tinkering with electronics, building a “food computer”, using data to tell stories...). We found that libraries are wonderful collaborators. They are also one of the last places where people from all walks of life encounter each other in a friendly environment. More info about the project is at https://PLIX.media.mit.edu (and I hope this post doesn’t seem too self-promotional - I just want to share our excitement about working with public libraries).

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Sigh...not a big fan of "STEAM" as opposed to "STEM". STEM exists because science, technology, engineering, and math don't get the focus they need in the standard US education system. There is also the arts of music, and drawing/painting/crafts, P.E., History, Literature that are still important, but take the focus away.

If you say...well STEM is important, but let's not forget art, pretty soon you'll say well we also need physical education as a healthy body is good too. Before long, you're back at the standard education system.

Getting back to the main subject at hand, libraries are awesome and will be even more important when Amazon forces the last brick and mortar bookstores out of existence. I've also started to see library outreach programs that teach classes on various subjects. Neil Gaiman has an essay on libraries in his book "a view from the cheap seats" that you can also see here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-fu...

As to the comment I'm responding to, you can probably mostly ignore my STEM vs STEAM argument as it is only mildly important as far as how funds are distributed. What really matters is people like you who are working to make a difference in the world and thank you for that. To think that I might get to bring my children to a library in the future that acts as a knowledge hub is pretty amazing. I've also found the librarians at my local library to be very kind & helpful people.

> STEM exists because science, technology, engineering, and math don't get the focus they need in the standard US education system.

Pretty much every HS kid in America is required to take at least 3 full years of math and science if not 4. How exactly are they not getting the focus over art? Schools are cutting art programs left and right in order to allocate more resources toward things that get covered on standardized tests.

3? (Kind of Sarcastic) wow!

Every single year/quarter of a person's basic education includes math and science (physics and then biology and chemistry, then a bit of cs) where I am from. Thus, worst case scenario a person has spent 9 years on that stuff (among other topics sure).

Sure I can see art does not get a lot of focus from what you are saying and I do not have experience in your system to say what the balance kept. But I can see if a school is running under budget and needs to reduce something that art/music is the first to go. Pity.

FYI HS is “high school” which is only 4 years long

Also, prior to high school, kids are usually taking math and science classes at all times, so the absolute maximum would be one year without math and science.

That's good. (Although what is the purpose of the off year?) Question: when you say science what does that incorporate?

I got that. Although not clear if they meant senior high school or what not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States

It is a bit unclear to me when someone says high school in the U.S. if they imply junior or senior or none of the above.

"High school" is the universally-accepted term in the US, and means four years before university. "Junior" high school is not a universal term, though exists in some areas. "Senior high school" is a term I've never heard before, appears uncited on that wikipedia page, and were I to say it to anyone I know they would look at me funny.

25% being math and science might be a lot to you, but I think it should be closer to 50%.

I think I kind of made the opposite comment (or you replied to the wrong comment not sure).

I think partly another comment and partly misreading yours lol, sorry about that.

It is a pity that we can't all be perfectly rounded for sure.

In the future, it'd be nice if you Kahn Academy everything starting in highschool and choose out of hundreds of courses on interest for the few electives you have.

Probably because taking 1 Math and 1 science a year is not nearly enough in the modern economy.

I went to a really good high school and took all AP courses and was still blown away in college by those who came from schools with strong STEM programs. When I was struggling with robotics, programming, circuits, CAD work (small portion of the freshman engineering curriculum) they had very little trouble. Why? They had 4 years of engineering classes in high school which covered those subjects. They got to substitute many of their other classes out (classes which I would say are valuable, but less valuable). That is the value of STEM. When I was struggling freshman year i would have gladly traded my art, Spanish, physical education...etc classes for classes which would have better prepared me. I ended up graduating on time with a pretty good GPA, but it was more work than it had to be.

Speaking as a foreigner who asked many Americans what kind of math and physics they learn in school, you guys aren't doing anywhere near enough of both if you want to stay competitive. I've met college students who don't know what was middle school math for us - and not because they forgot.

That's what i try to tell people and they just don't seem to understand how much of an impact this will have over the long term.

Frankly I think there are a lot bigger problems in the US schooling system that what are balance of ceramics:chemistry should be. (Besides, the chemistry teacher let me borrow lithium salts to spice up my ceramics glaze)

FWIW my art classes were basically "get familiar with the viscosity, stickiness, rate of evaporation, and rigidity of a new material every week" class. I'm much better able to reason about interactions between materials because of an hour a day making things with my hands.

I agree that libraries are the bomb.

That's a use case I wasn't familiar with, but I'm not sure how typical it is.

Libraries are awesome:)

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