For those old enough to remember, today’s obsession with STEM is nothing new. It is in fact a rerun of a show that played for years in the late 1950s and 1960s after the Soviet Union beat the United States into space with Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Washington panicked in response to the Soviet accomplishment and orchestrated a huge push for Americans to study science, mathematics, and engineering. The STEM acronym had not yet been invented, but all its aspects were there. Thousands answered the call. Science and technical subjects dominated at universities. High school and grade school programs were upgraded. When the United States finally won the “space race” in 1969 by landing a man on the moon, the pressure came off, as did the flow of federal dollars. Programs collapsed. Many scientists and engineers lost their jobs.
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