WASHINGTON, DC – Approximately 3.6 million seniors will graduate from high school in the spring, and it is estimated that more than 65% of them will enroll in colleges and universities. Their parents are rightly concerned about their futures, but too many of them push their kids to pick the so-called “practical” majors in science, technology, engineering and math.

“They think degrees in STEM subjects will ensure a prosperous future. It’s only natural. But, they may be making a big mistake by trying to dissuade children who want liberal arts degrees,” according to author, publisher and education advocate, David Bruce Smith.

Smith believes that the study of such subjects as history, literature and philosophy can be the infrastructure of a successful career.

And, so have others. According to Philipp Frank, who authored “Einstein: His Life and Times,” Einstein said: “It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”

Despite a decline in the number of students who choose to study the liberal arts, there is a growing demand among employers for those who graduate with degrees in the humanities. Employers are just beginning to realize that prospective employees with this credential, understand the human condition, better—and the things that motivate us,” according to Smith.

“The study of math and the sciences certainly makes one an effective practitioner in the workplace. But, a successful liberal arts education produces decision makers who are able to draw on a diversity of viewpoints and opinions. In the workaday world of business and commerce that is an exceptionally valuable asset,” says Smith who is co-founder of the Grateful American Book Prize.

He and the late Dr. Bruce Cole, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, founded the Prize in 2015 to encourage young learners to acquire a love of reading and history. They saw that a 21^st Century obsession with technology was creating a deficit of interest in the humanities among students, and a noteworthy lack of knowledge about their nation.

“So, we created the Grateful American Book Prize as a way of encouraging authors and their publishers to produce more historically accurate works of fiction and nonfiction that would capture the imaginations of America’s younger generations. Our hope is to instill a wish to learn more about the events and personalities of our country’s past. The aim is to help them grow into practical thinkers and good citizens — qualities that can make them productive, responsible, and successful leaders in whatever careers they choose in life.”