Why Are We Limiting Ourselves with STEM and Humanities?
Decades ago, the idea of combining disciplines became part of the educational dialogue. Innovative educators began using connections in history and English to teach Interdisciplinary units. In more recent years, the combination of math and science, or STEM, has become a popular connector. STEM, science/technology/engineering/math, evolved out of the connections easily made in these two disciplines.
In the late 1990s, I was a radical innovator as I integrated social studies and English into my curricular units. As a young teacher I saw the possibilities and was eager to try new things. I collaborated with English teachers as best as I could with our traditional schedules, and I incorporated writing projects into my own class.
As I grew and learned more as a teacher, I recognized I could incorporate more disciplines with my own, and I was eager to do so. I recognized the possibilities of teaching economics and the stock market with math, teaching geography with science, and culture with art.
Currently, I regularly work with the art teacher to make connections in my social studies lessons. When I teach Japanese culture and history, our art teacher has students create bamboo paintings and instructs on how to draw anime. One year, we even redesigned our schedule to spend a day learning about Japanese…
