As our civilisation hurtles headlong towards a materialistic and technological future, less and less of us are acquiring the necessarily skills to work in what we call the STEM careers - that is any field of activity or work related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM).

More and more machines are being created, with great developments in artificial intelligence for example, yet so many of us do not really understand how things work, or appreciate and understand the potential effects of such developments and discoveries on the future of our civilisation. We hear much about climate change but what does it mean exactly and do we know the real facts? What about nuclear energy? The cleanest energy possible, yet many are afraid of it because they don’t understand it.

There is so much data all around us that it is all too easy to become overwhelmed by it all. This is why an ability to read with understanding and to critically think are essential skills when researching, studying, learning about and inspecting information for yourself.

Many people shun learning about STEM subjects because they believe that they are ‘too stupid’ to do maths, or ‘not clever enough for science’, or ‘too thick’ to work anywhere else than a supermarket, doomed to a menial career for life. I am sure you have come across such instances many times.

But please, take a few steps back and look at the situation from an exterior point of view: NO human child is born with the idea that he is too stupid to learn, or not clever enough to succeed. Very young children usually consider the world as their oyster! They can be anything they wish to be and have many big goals for the future. Therefore, it follows that this idea of being ‘unable’ to learn could only occur if someone else had suggested or told them, for example, that they were ‘disabled’, or ‘too stupid to learn' or ‘too thick to ever amount to anything'.

Yet, it is essential for everyone to be able to learn and understand the basics of STEM subjects if only by virtue of living on planet Earth. We live in a physical world, and we should understand how it works.

For our planet and civilisation to thrive, the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics must be handled by individuals who can successfully observe, learn and apply, who can think for themselves, and who not only retain a high degree of personal and work ethic, but a strong moral compass for the betterment of humankind.

So what has been going wrong?

True literacy and the human ability to critically think have been on a very steep decline and have suffered an unrelenting onslaught for the past couple of hundred years (read the full article here) resulting in:

• Huge global skills shortage despite large population. 
• Students and adults who can no longer think for themselves.
• Pressurising students to study, to learn to "pass exams", without consulting their willingness to know. Force, force, force..... force begets force.....
• Education has become behaviour management, learning disorders, prescription drugs and electric shock treatment for adults and children etc.
• Students highly stressed, high suicide rates, depression, mental health problems.
• Soaring crime and drug-use in areas where good education is lacking.
• THE LOSS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. 

Despite what the ‘exam results statistics’ would like to have you believe, the actual standards of English and maths taught in our primary and secondary schools in the UK has significantly declined over the last several decades resulting in school leavers as well as those going on to university or college unable to read with understanding.  Focus and emphasis on what in the past was referred to as the three R’s –  reading, writing and arithmetic - has been woefully neglected in our current education system, having been replaced by a disproportionate focus on behaviour and whether or not a student can commit data to memory to pass a test, instead of learning and acquiring knowledge for practical use and application in life.

Mission Statement

1. The STEMiteracy educational initiative aims to restore true literacy as the building block of successful STEM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and successful education.

2. STEMiteracy empowers all students with the learning know-how and tools required to become able learners, therefore becoming competent in life and in their chosen fields.

3. STEMiteracy seeks to make the world of STEM universally accessible to anyone with an interest in it, thus opening the doors to many learners who, due to a skill gap in their reading and writing skills, may not have considered themselves able enough to study a STEM subject, let alone have a career in STEM.

True literacy and accompanying learning know-how is the cornerstone to success not only in STEM education, but in all educational endeavours. Restoring these abilities in every student will create a renaissance in the field of education not seen for a long time.

STEMiteracy Outcomes

• STEMiteracy opens the door to a new era in STEM education and the wider field of education, where application of new educational principles rooted in philosophy restores to students the ability to observe and to think, to learn and to study with an ability to apply the information and the knowledge that they have learned. The focus is wholly on ability, comprehension and successful application, and not on students 'memorising to pass exams'.

• Students who wish to study STEM subjects but who may have previously believed themselves unable to succeed in STEM will discover that they can indeed develop the ability to learn these subjects, and do well in them.

• Reduction in STEM subjects dropouts.

• STEMiteracy moves away from the modern Western educational methods based on both the 19^th century Prussian educational system of making compliant soldiers and on Wilhelm Wundt’s introduction, in 1879, of the then new subject of 'psychology' which focusses wholly on animal behaviour and moulding the individual to a fixed, controllable pattern, instead of developing ability, knowledge and free thinking (a violent move away from philosophy and religion which have always been the home of education and knowledge).