STEM is an acronym for "Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Technology". While Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Technology have all been around for a long while, the usage of the term "STEM" has only come into play in the last few years, and is generally used by those advocating for an increase in education in these subjects in the US Educational system, from primary school through university.
The "STEM" subjects have been a part of education for thousands of years, and (strangely enough) are currently taught at all levels of the United States Educational system. But it is only in the past few years that talk of "STEM" has become a thing, and I don't really know who started throwing around this term, anymore than I know who first started talking about The Feels. Because the denotation of "STEM" are different from its connotation. While Science, Technology, Engineering and Math can do many things, they can not do everything that STEMs can do.
STEMs are the secret to empowering women to throw off subsidiary positions in the workforce. STEMs are the way that minority youth, so long downtrodden, can gain self-esteem. STEMs are a way that the American middle class can be revitalize again. And STEMs are a way the American economy can shake off its doldrums, and regain control of its place in the world. I have seen, explicitly or implicitly, STEM education mentioned as a cure for all of these, and more.
Which is why, despite the fact that I do believe education in STEM fields is a good thing, and needed (and despite the fact that I myself have been employed as a mathematics teacher), I greet much STEM talk with some weariness.
I have two main problems with STEM. The first part is that so much of the reasoning behind the need for STEM is based on a narrative of questionable accuracy. There is a free-floating belief that most American students are spending their time either eating Taco Bell and playing video games, and if they do go on to study, it is something like French Poetry. Meanwhile, Chinese second graders are mastering calculus, which is why China is building aircraft carriers and stealth aircraft. The type of people who believe things like this are often the type of people who have a bad experience with a young person and thus believe that the entire American educational system is going downhill. And the attention focused on the supposed problem of America's educational decline is attention that might be better spent elsewhere: by fixing the real problems of the American economy, such as fossil fuel dependence and income inequality.
My second problem is that I don't separate "hard" subjects from "soft" subjects as much as others do, and I think that such separation is counter-productive. The same skills of literacy, analysis, critical thinking, problem solving and research that allow someone to understand American history or Chinese literature are the skills that they use to understand the "hard sciences". The attitude that many of us have encountered, of people who claim they "aren't good at math", is actually in some ways encouraged by the attitude that separates STEM subjects from other subjects: once people reify STEM subjects as an esoteric, difficult and specific field, they are less inclined to do them. The truth is, people are constantly learning about all of these things, whether they know it or not.
In conclusion, although I agree that STEM subjects are important and more focus needs to be placed on them, I am wary of the agenda of the STEM movement, and I also wonder if the generalization that these subjects needs more emphasis takes into account all the factors in students' educational development.