We call on President Obama to cease separating STEM fields and the humanities in assigning value to the components of a well-rounded education. While the STEM fields may seem to provide more immediate prospects of employment and to spur competition within increasingly globalized technological and scientific sectors, the humanities will be required to meet the new challenges to perception and communication that these advances bring about.
Humanistic disciplines develop skills in argumentation, visual analysis, and historical perspective. They cultivate moral, ethical, and cultural competencies that the American government must value and support because the arts and humanities most thoroughly equip our society to cope with hardships and solve problems through creativity and imagination.