What should be taught

[Skandi]

I was listening to the radio earlier and they were mentioning a conservative plan to "weight" the core subjects (maths, science and English) more heavily than subjects such as media studies when compiling the league tables.

This made me think, what subjects should be included in the free education? Should things like media studies/travel and tourism even be offered or do they subtract from the time that can be spent on more key subjects?

If you think that "light" subjects should not be offered which ones do you think should be?

Personally I think that they should not be offered, they are primarily there to let the less able students pass something. I think that the timetable space should be used to ensure that these students leave school at least able to write and do basic maths,

My subjects would be

compulsory

English lang
Maths
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
History
Geography
Home economics
A foreign language

Voluntary;
Art
another Language
Religious studies
music
a craft or design subject
IT.
English Literature

I may have missed a few but not many. Any other subjects are better tackled at college or in university. and in the case of some NEVER at the expense of the taxpayer.

[Psychonaut]

Why, of all subjects, make chemistry compulsory? I took chemistry in high school (age 15) and can't honestly recall a single instance where I've used any of what I was taught in that class since then.

Anyway, my list would probably be:
[insert your nation here] Government
[insert your nation here] History
[insert your nation's language here] Language
Math up to Algebra I
Enough Biology to cover the theory of evolution
Enough Physics to cover the Big Bang theory
Logic, to include extensive training to recognize formal fallacies

[Skandi]

Why, of all subjects, make chemistry compulsory? I took chemistry in high school (age 15) and can't honestly recall a single instance where I've used any of what I was taught in that class since then.


Because you need it for many science relate subjects later on in education.

Plus you get to blow things up.

[Psychonaut]

Because you need it for many science relate subjects later on in education.

Plus you get to blow things up.

But how many people, even college graduates, go on to take more than one college-level science class? I can certainly understand making it available for those who are interested, but I don't really see why it should be compulsory. Most people who are forced to take a chemistry class will simply forget it as quickly as possible, which seems like a waste of their time and tax dollars.

[Skandi]

But how many people, even college graduates, go on to take more than one college-level science class? I can certainly understand making it available for those who are interested, but I don't really see why it should be compulsory. Most people who are forced to take a chemistry class will simply forget it as quickly as possible, which seems like a waste of their time and tax dollars.

It depends on what you want to do but to me it is important as you can't understand either biology or Physics without it and it is a good practical use for maths. Personaly I like the sciences and this will obviously bias me towards them, I can't see any point in studying government but hey ho!

[Psychonaut]

I can't see any point in studying government but hey ho!

I just think that a big part of public education should be to prepare people to be informed voters. Those who do not understand the fundamentals of their nation's constitution and governmental structure will not be capable of making informed choices when they're of age to vote.

[Beorn]

What should be taught?

English history and culture.
English Literature, language, oral.
Geography.
Maths.
Basic Sciences ie: Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc...
French.
Russian.
Spanish.(Perhaps German if one wants to learn a minority and fringe language outside of the aforementioned).
Martial Arts.
Physical Exercise.
Home and healthcare.

[Loddfafner]

Just about any topic, including and especially the most flaky-sounding, can be an occasion to teach such basics as good writing, careful reading, and critical thinking.

[Tabiti]

Native language Literature and Grammar;
World Literature classics;
National History and World History;
National Culture and Folklore;
Maths and Logic;
Natural sciences - Biology, Physics, Chemistry;
Geography;
Arts and History of Arts;
Foreign language;
Computer studies;
Sport;

All the bases of these subjects should be obligatory at least until high school. If the student is interested more in some of the listened above subjects, he/she could choose the program him/herself or go into specialized class.

[SwordoftheVistula]

The government should stop funding post-secondary education, especially for fields of study which are not in 'high demand'. The rationale given for government funding of education, especially post-secondary education, is to 'improve the economy by creating a more qualified work force'.

How does giving more people degrees in 'philosophy' and 'literature' create a 'more qualified work force'? I can see funding science degrees because those jobs are essential so that we don't have to hire asians for those jobs, but not that other crap.

Also if these employers want a 'better trained workforce', maybe they should train these employees themselves. It's not the government's job to provide them with a pool of workers they can hire and fire at will. Maybe if they don't axe employees as soon as their sales drop a bit, they won't have this problem of 'unable to find qualified employees'.

At the lower levels, the subjects which should be taught in public schools are:

Grammar and reading, or 'English' as we call it here. Give people a basic literacy level.

'Maths'. Kids need to learn that if they have 3 'maths' and acquire 2 more, they now have 5 'maths'

Basic science. People should at least know what the hell 'force', 'mass', and 'the periodic table' are.

Principles of how the government works, and history. The history should focus on that locale and nation. Excessive and undue attention should not be given to, for example, a minute detail of a war on another continent in which 6 million members of a particuarly obnoxious ethnic group allegedly died.

Economics (and not govt/lefty propaganda)

2 fields greatly lacking in education (at least in the US of the mid-late 90s):

Technology/computers, this is essential for modern life.

Personal finance




Nothing else!

Art/music etc can't really be learned in a classroom setting anyways, so get rid of that.

'gym class' is also retarded. Just let kids play outside. If they want to play in organized sports, let the local parks organize that, and then the homeschool kids can participate too.

[Ulf]

It depends on what you want to do but to me it is important as you can't understand either biology or Physics without it and it is a good practical use for maths. Personaly I like the sciences and this will obviously bias me towards them, I can't see any point in studying government but hey ho!

Physics > Chemistry > Biology

Of course, these are typically subject to the behemoth called Mathematics.
----

I wish there would have been a philosophy class in my high school. I was always reprimanded in 'Language Arts' class because I refused to read the books they prescribed and chose Dostoevsky and Nietzsche instead. I think it confused the teachers as to what to do with me. Should you really reprimand me for reading such things!? :thumbs up

[Beorn]

An amendment to my original post.

I would insist that this man is wheeled around the world to educate our children. Perhaps us also.


u5iFESMAU58

(thank you Ulf :thumb001:)

[nisse]

Physics > Chemistry > Biology
IMO only Physics>Chemistry works...Biology is not a science :D

I think "free" education is not such a great idea. It too easily turns into a tool to indoctrinate people. Only math, physics, chemistry, and hands on classes (arts/gym/cooking/shop) should be taught that way...may be very basic language classes and basic biology too. Everything else needs to be directly supervised by the parents (until the children are old enough to have ideas of their own) or the children risk growing up with other people's ideas.

EDIT: I think everything should be taught to children by someone other than the parents, but the parents must look over everything the child is taught and question them about it. This will ensure that the child is exposed to many opinions, but is ultimately most influenced by the parents. In the case of subjects other than the ones I mentioned above the parents should also act as teachers.

[Shkembe Chorba]

Think it's necessary to have a subject National Culture and Folklore, as someone already mention it. We are going 12 years to school and have no classes about our true history as we see it every day. Bulgaria is not economical stable which repels my generation to every aspect of the country's life - culture, political, religious and tradition. We are more interested in traveling in Western Europe (and even our not-so-better countries) than exploring Bulgaria.

And Politics. As for nowadays, I found it pretty important to have political opinion. And more significant - correct political opinion.

[silver_surfer]

Programming should be compulsory too since we are living in information age.