art = science

My daughter recently won a contest that placed her art on the cover of her school's yearbook. While I was proud of her initiative and her win, I questioned the shrug that appeared to follow – as if her accomplishment wasn't significant enough to revel in the praise. It made me consider the hierarchy of school subjects and how artistic expression frequently falls toward the bottom. Granted, we are finally moving from STEM to STEAM, yet we tend to not encourage the arts with the same vigor as science and math as a society.

It's true. We need science. Thank you, Dr. Fauci. And we need math. Where would we be without Sir Isaac Newton? But we also need art and humanities – and STEM scholars need creative and social exposure. The arts provide us with connection, engagement and foster empathy and understanding. By integrating the humanities and arts into the curriculum, "students will be better equipped to come up with and share ideas, no matter which career they end up pursuing."

Artistic expression not only uses a different part of the brain, but it allows for daydreaming and a search for "what if?" The arts make space for storytelling and visual data; for individual expression and physical movement through dance and theater. How boring would the world be if we merely lived in a literal world of facts and statistics? Through algorithms and codes. Yet, for our society to continue accepting and supporting the arts, we have to change the narrative.

We must vote for leaders who believe in the power of magic, art, and imagination. Do we really want our children to study accounting when their dream is to become a set designer? Or a ceramicist? Just imagine, what would the pandemic have looked like without the arts? How would we have sanely lived through 15 months without movies and books and the paintings upon our walls? Let's ensure that the artists of tomorrow are valued as much as the tech bros who are flooding our handheld devices with time-sucking programs. Picasso said that we are all born artists. "The problem is how to remain an artist once (s)he grows up." Let's continue working toward a world that allows us to retain that childlike wonder and artistic expression.