system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The STEM acronym should not change to STEAM to include the arts. Change my view.

Recently I have begun seeing a trend of people saying “STEAM” major or “STEAM” field, meaning Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. 

Art fundamentally does not belong in this group. I am not saying that art majors are not important and that they should be discounted by any means, however these are just opposing fields. 

The individual STEM fields are all different from each other in their own ways, however they incorporate similar basic principles (scientific method, problem solving, quantitative reasoning, mathematics, etc) that allow them to be grouped together that the arts simply do not have.  This allows STEM to give a clear and concise idea of the types of disciplines being discussed. This re-branding devalues and convolutes what it means when we are telling kids to go into STEM fields. I find it hard to see a justification for how an art background qualifies someone to be in a group with the rest of the STEM disciplines. Change my view.

Edit: I don’t believe that saying “creativity is important in STEM” is a justification for adding the art to STEM. Of course creativity is important, as it is in almost every field, but I do not believe that art is the only place that creativity can be derived. 

Edit 2: Really surprised and excited by all of the good feedback I got on this one! Here's what I have learned so far from reading your comments:

- It seems that the fundamental question that needs to answered is what is the definition of "Art" in this context? Throughout the comments it seems like there was a lack of a consensus on what is truly meant by "Art" in this scenario. Clearly a tough question to answer, but is it more specific to humanities like history, literature, languages, and philosophy...or literally all forms of Art?

- The movement to add the "A" to STEM seems to primarily be a push from educators who feel that STEM is being much higher valued at schools and that the Arts are being left behind in this movement. STEAM is not necessarily saying that Art is the same as the rest of STEM but it is saying that it deserves an equal place in education at the rest of the STEM disciplines do, a point which I would agree with.

- Art and the traits that it enhances through learning it are vital to the STEM fields and people in general to have a well-rounded education. Without the Arts many of the great innovations in STEM would not be possible.

With all of that being said, I have learned a lot today but still hold to my original opinion that the change from "STEM" to "STEAM" is unnecessary. Until there is a clear definition of what courses, disciplines, and careers are being referred to with "Art", I feel as though the addition of the very broad term "Art" waters down the original intent of the STEM movement. If we are unable to define what is considered "in" and "out" for STEAM, then how can we expect the young students to understand it? 

I still fully understand the necessity and the power that the arts have in society, and by no means do I think that should be negated. However if the main reasoning behind the creation of "STEAM" is to help Arts not get left behind in schools, then that is not a valid justification for adding it to a group of disciplines where it just does not have much in common. Overall, the addition of the "A" simply does not make sense in this context, and it draws away from the original intent behind the STEM acronym.
gpt
I think you're missing out on the history of the use of these terms.  First of all, STEM and STEM are terms in *education*.  They're not "fields."  

STEM was prioritized in education because students (especially marginalized ones) find them intimidating... it's very easy to feel frozen out and isolated in them.  People weren't choosing to major in them despite their benefit to society.  So it makes sense educators might focus on them in a particular way, encouraging students to go into them.

But then, the pendulum swung too far the other way: people encoded the message "STEM is all that matters."  This is a problem, because arts education facilitates creative and problem-solving thinking in ways STEM courses can't: we were churning out people who smugly thought their majors were all that was important in the world, but their critical and creative thinking was, in some ways, weak and undeveloped.

This is a practical education issue.