Jim Bruner: Child Development - STEM vs STEAM Wrestling With Chaos

In this episode I talk with Jim Bruner who works in child development and who draws on his long history of mentorship to develop diversity, specifically combining the arts with technology. We started with Jim introducing the importance of diversity - turning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). He and his husband bought a farm and with is half Jim dedicated it to gardening and technology. He realized without diversity technology is a destructive component causing isolation and destruction. With diversity technology can be unifying. He works with anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers to apply diversity to “gardens” of people! This helps with his search for diversity of skill and talent among his students, working to elevate the individual while promoting team spirit and behavior. A big breakthrough occurred when he realized there was benefit to be gained when the mentoring went outside a focused purpose - the children are unique “gardens,” themselves! Children need to be in an environment where they can thrive and grow, realizing for themselves what they can and can’t accomplish. Ask about their dreams, look at their art, etc., and let them talk about it. This helps children understand they don’t need permission to be who they are. The conversation moved into STEM vs STEAM. The arts are critical to every stage of technology because without a sense of wonder and beauty there is no technology. Art is needed to move technology forward. THERE ARE NO SOFT SKILLS - technology moving forward is about people interacting based on mutual respect. It is grounded in creativity. With STEAM children are challenged to push their own limits to solve problems. This turns creativity on, which is art. Learning to do this within a group and build mutual respect is key. With the “A” for Art, STEAM turns STEM into creativity. It’s teaching children to lean through empathy and understanding. One problem mentioned was the movement from “natural philosophy” to “science.” “Natural philosophy” is a frame of mind about connection across all areas of human endeavor which encourages art to be connected to technology - STEAM. On the other hand, removal of art in order to have STEM (as was done in the industrial revolution) risks dehumanizing and fragmenting the individual thus creating problems for and within children. Jim, himself, lives a diverse life, from his farm, Mezzacello (https://mezzacello.org/) where children study food, technology, and learning, to the PAST foundation (https://www.pastfoundation.org/ ) which partners anthropology with science and technology. “We don’t need more kids to work in factories. We need factories that can work with passion and creativity to reach new horizons.” Maurice Sendak in his book, “I don’t care, Pierre,” discusses how a STEM frame of mind leads to demotivation - absence of love. Technology flows from creativity which is forged in art, history, poetry, literature, love, laughter, and tears. People are the beautiful strange attractors that create chaos leading to invention and technology. But what about kids who don’t care? Kids who are outliers? They need mentorship both from adults but also peer-to-peer. They need to be empowered by learning to trust themselves and others. It has to do with vulnerability and dealing with the associated challenges. We discussed how Apollo 13 reflects what is being spoken. (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo13.html, 13 Factors that Saved Apollo 13) To reflect all this Jim teaches algorithms to children via Tai Chi - 11 movements tied together by a story. He can teach the algorithm to children in 3 weeks! The problem with algorithms arise when they are dedicated to a single purpose, e.g., profits. People then become devises meant only to achieve the goal - their humanity is subtracted. People are multi-dimensional and for childre