Studying science, technology

engineering and mathematics are seen as a priority. It is also easy to see why these things are important - important to all of us. 

The present government is trying to ensure that people do study these things. The previous government tried to do the same. Extra funds are being poured into trying to get improved results in maths and the sciences in schools. The idea is that, with better results, students will want to go on and study these things at university. It is said that they will be better prepared for the workforce and that there will be jobs available.

Students who want to study arts subjects and even languages are not so highly regarded. They are even told they are not doing the best they could do, that they are not "using their intellectual abilities".

Ms W is under pressure. Her form teacher spoke to me yesterday.

"Can't you make her see that she would be better off going into the science stream next year?"

"She isn't interested. She loves her languages."

"Well she can still do one but she has the capacity to do science and it seems such a waste not to use it."

I held my tongue. Ms W has discussed this with her father, with me, with her Italian teacher. (Italian is an extra subject done outside school.) She is, slowly, having thoughts about possible careers. None of those careers include science or maths. 

"We have to make up our minds pretty much by the start of next term," Ms W informed me as we headed off to buy a present for an elderly friend.

"Mrs....  thinks you should be doing maths and science," I told her.

"I don't want to. I know it's supposed to be important but, like you said, if you can't talk to people and think about things then you can't do anything."

I had not put it quite like that but Ms W went on before I could say anything.

"I like words. Words are important. I like knowing the words in other languages. I think differently then. When I am talking to (her Italian teacher) then it is quite different even from when I am doing French in school."

"Maths is a language," I told her.

"Mmm...sort of....maybe. I have to do one thing from maths or science. If I did maths I wouldn't have to go to the lab but I don't think it will fit in with the timetable."

I know that is most unlikely too. I have seen this year's timetable. I think Ms W.... will need to do biology. It is regarded as a "soft option" for the arts stream, a subject for the less able.

Ms W's father is aware of the problem. He did some science in school but, like her, his interests lay elsewhere. He knows the importance of maths and science and technology. 

"But if she isn't sufficiently interested in those things to want to spend the rest of  her life at them then I am not going to say she should," he once told me.

As she left me yesterday I said to Ms W, "You could suggest to your form teacher that you might want to do law. Languages could be very useful for that."

"I am saving that as a reserve argument," she told me. 

It is possible she might make an excellent international lawyer.