✍️ Why I Hate STEM (And Why I Don't, Really)

Let me be clear right from the start — I love science, technology, engineering, and math. I always have.

I love discovery. I love invention. I love the way science can explain the stars, how technology connects people, and how engineering builds what once only existed in imagination.

But here’s the truth: I can’t do STEM in any meaningful way.

Not because I haven’t trained, and not because I lack education — but because my brain just doesn’t work in the way it needs to.

I could probably hold my own in S, T, and E.

But the M?

That’s what kills me.

Without the math, the rest collapses like a house with no foundation.

It’s not for lack of trying. I’ve stared at equations until they blurred. I’ve re-read explanations that other people seem to just “get.”

But no matter how hard I’ve tried, that part of my brain never seemed to light up the way I wanted it to.

For a long time, I thought that meant I wasn’t smart enough.

That’s what school teaches us, doesn’t it?

That intelligence is measured by how quickly you can calculate or recall.

But intelligence has many dialects.

And not all of them speak in numbers.

Some people think in formulas; others think in feelings, patterns, or people.

My mind works in connections — the human kind.

It builds systems out of behaviour, motivation, and story.

It’s probably why I ended up where I did — in a dojo, teaching life through movement.

Science and math are beautiful because they teach us how the universe works.

But karate — and art, and music, and philosophy — teach us how *we* work inside that universe.

STEM gives us progress.

Dojo gives us purpose.

When they’re together, humanity moves forward.

When they’re apart, we get lost in the mechanics and forget the meaning.

I don’t actually hate STEM.

What I hate is the way we’ve turned it into a hierarchy — as if creative or emotional intelligence are second-class citizens.

Not everyone is meant to code.

Not everyone is meant to calculate.

Some of us are meant to lead, to inspire, to connect, to teach, to move.

And that’s not a flaw. That’s balance.

Because if math builds bridges, empathy is what keeps people from burning them down.

So no, I don’t really hate STEM.

I hate the idea that the only kind of intelligence worth celebrating fits neatly into a spreadsheet.

The truth is, I love science for what it reveals, and karate for what it restores.

Both search for truth — they just use different languages.

And that’s what I try to teach every day in the dojo:

Don’t measure your worth by what kind of intelligence you have.

Measure it by what you *do* with it.

Osu,

Kyoshi Eric Vinagreiro, B.A., B.Ed.

Northern Karate Markham