Are we learning useful things in school?

[Third Asopia]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention.
Not ALL subjects are useless. But, the number of useful subjects is not that much. I think your native language and math are important for survival in today's world. But unless you decide to be a geographer, scientist or biologist, the other subject ain't really gonna work.

How you gonna know you want to be one of those if you don't get taught about them?

I guess its about interest. Once you reach a certain level you can choose a few subjects to learn based on your dream job.

[Alvecia]

How you gonna know you want to be one of those if you don't get taught about them?

I guess its about interest. Once you reach a certain level you can choose a few subjects to learn based on your dream job.

I mean, still same question. How you gonna get interested if you don't get taught about it.
And from personal experience I can tell you that simply being interested in something doesn't make it a viable career choice.

[Rojava Free State]

The only thing I learned in school is that life is a struggle and not everyone makes it (literally, some people die young). I never learned math, science, history, English or anything in school. I had to learn it at home because my teachers were shit and probably all should have been fired but weren't because they have their little union to protect them. Money was grossly mismanaged in my district and half the people in the area didn't even send their kids to the public schools so the little funding we got went to the teachers union and our football team and a little to materials but not much. I had to share a textbook in my US government class in junior year with three other people. My physics textbook was falling apart at the seams and copyrighted 1974. My health class book was so old,Tupac lives on within its pages. I graduated years ago but my sister is going into senior year in the fall and she hates it. god, the flashbacks are awful for me

[Pax Nerdvana]

The subjects learned a have their uses, but I believe we need to be teaching students how to repair and fix things themselves.

[Longweather]

The purpose of education is not to simply instil "life skills" and get people into employment, though obviously those things are important to some extent. It's to elevate the learners, produce a well-informed citizenry capable of critical thinking, and expand the opportunities available to children. If you cut things like biology or history from the school curriculum in favour of more "practical" lessons you are not only creating a generation of historically and scientifically illiterate voters and so encouraging things such as Holocaust denial, anti-environmentalism and the anti-vaccination movement, you're also cutting off the opportunity for many children- particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds- to discover that they enjoy and/or possess an aptitude for those areas. Additionally, as others have noted, many of the skills children acquire from studying things like English or history are important transferable skills that will be of use to them in whatever path they chose to pursue in life.

Whenever arguments such as this one come up, the things people wish for children to learn in school- domestic skills, how taxation works, and so forth- are often things that should really be the parents' obligation to teach.

Thank you for posting this, it's pretty much exactly how I feel on the topic.

Though I would have added something about the ones who complain largely seem to be the ones who didn't care much for school anyways. I particularly doubt that specific people I know would have benefitted from the "practical" courses they desire.

Whenever arguments such as this one come up, the things people wish for children to learn in school- domestic skills, how taxation works, and so forth- are often things that should really be the parents' obligation to teach.

I agree with your general point, but this is where I strongly disagree. Financial literacy and how taxation works are far too important to be left to parents, especially since most people are shockingly ignorant about basic finance. Combined with the fact that financial literacy and knowledge of taxation is fundamental in all walks of life, it's borderline foolishness to suggest that schools shouldn't teach the 'facts of life' as it were.

Edit: I'd argue its cruel as well, since low financial literacy does the person no favours.

I looked at those questions. They're less basic finance and more basic numeracy and logic. All it really proves is that Australians are bad at word problems and, probably, basic mathematics and logic.

[Ethel mermania]

We're learning to be 19th century clerks with reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Exactly. We are supposed to be preparing for the future, not the past.

You can't design IC's without reading, writing, and arthimatic.

[Bluelight-R006]

Exactly. We are supposed to be preparing for the future, not the past.

You can't design IC's without reading, writing, and arthimatic.

That’s the basics, though. That needs to be taught or else there’d be no more NationStates roleplays. Oh, don’t forsake them.

[Geneviev]

If someone is interested in music and is forced to learn biology, that's not going to be useful to them.

Not if that someone believes creationism should be taught alongside evolution.

That person atill wouldn't need biology. It has nothing to do with the thing they actually want to learn.

[Bluelight-R006]

Not if that someone believes creationism should be taught alongside evolution.

That person atill wouldn't need biology. It has nothing to do with the thing they actually want to learn.

Biology is good, though, for anyone — you can show it off and teach it to your children so they can show it off too

But seriously, in later life, Biology doesn’t matter to someone who wants to learn Music. But the person/people need to try it out to know if they want to change their mind on taking music or not. We can’t rush to our dreams, we have to build them and make sure we were right.

[Alvecia]

That person atill wouldn't need biology. It has nothing to do with the thing they actually want to learn.

Biology is good, though, for anyone — you can show it off and teach it to your children so they can show it off too

But seriously, in later life, Biology doesn’t matter to someone who wants to learn Music. But the person/people need to try it out to know if they want to change their mind on taking music or not. We can’t rush to our dreams, we have to build them and make sure we were right.

I'd say arguably human biology is one of the more important subjects to teach. Having people know about how their own body works and the like.

[Petrolheadia]

The only thing I learned in school is that life is a struggle and not everyone makes it (literally, some people die young). I never learned math, science, history, English or anything in school. I had to learn it at home because my teachers were shit and probably all should have been fired but weren't because they have their little union to protect them. Money was grossly mismanaged in my district and half the people in the area didn't even send their kids to the public schools so the little funding we got went to the teachers union and our football team and a little to materials but not much. I had to share a textbook in my US government class in junior year with three other people. My physics textbook was falling apart at the seams and copyrighted 1974. My health class book was so old,Tupac lives on within its pages. I graduated years ago but my sister is going into senior year in the fall and she hates it. god, the flashbacks are awful for me

That's what Americans get for overpowered unions and limited to no school competition.

[Bluelight-R006]

Biology is good, though, for anyone — you can show it off and teach it to your children so they can show it off too

But seriously, in later life, Biology doesn’t matter to someone who wants to learn Music. But the person/people need to try it out to know if they want to change their mind on taking music or not. We can’t rush to our dreams, we have to build them and make sure we were right.

I'd say arguably human biology is one of the more important subjects to teach. Having people know about how their own body works and the like.

True... it’s nice to know something and then later on have a subject that relates to it, then you know what people are talking about.

[Xmara]

I definitely think that schools should teach students some life skills, such as how to do taxes. I would be okay with schools bringing back home economics.

I also think we need to improve science education.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I learned to read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide, grasped several scientific concepts, biology, chemistry, learned forensics, history and basic psychology, draw, use a computer and socialized. I think we do learn useful things in school.

[Bluelight-R006]

I definitely think that schools should teach students some life skills, such as how to do taxes. I would be okay with schools bringing back home economics.

I thought they already taught about dealing with financial issues and macroeconomics in schools?

I also think we need to improve science education.

Yes. We need to relate scientific concepts to everyday and how they benefit us instead of being taught for the sake of the curriculum’s requirements simply.

[Xmara]

Not if that someone believes creationism should be taught alongside evolution.

That person atill wouldn't need biology. It has nothing to do with the thing they actually want to learn.

Still should at least know some basic facts. Like how vaccines actually work and how they do not cause autism.

[Xmara]

I definitely think that schools should teach students some life skills, such as how to do taxes. I would be okay with schools bringing back home economics.

I thought they already taught about dealing with financial issues and macroeconomics in schools?

I never learned any of that in school.

[Bluelight-R006]

I thought they already taught about dealing with financial issues and macroeconomics in schools?

I never learned any of that in school.

Huh. Well it’s taught here, Grade 9 and above (if you take the course). I guess it depends on where you live.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I thought they already taught about dealing with financial issues and macroeconomics in schools?

I never learned any of that in school.

My last year of school we were taught how to cook, cleaning, balancing a checkbook, changing a tire and how to measure oil levels in a car.

[Bluelight-R006]

I never learned any of that in school.

My last year of school we were taught how to cook, cleaning, balancing a checkbook, changing a tire and how to measure oil levels in a car.

Seems helpful.

[Unstoppable Empire of Doom]

Most useless thing I learned in school: How to write an essay for or against school dress codes.

Most useful thing I learned in school: How to read a tapemeasure.

Automation is coming but it is still generations away. Tradeskills should be taught not just exclusively mathematics and writing. Not everyone goes to university. All those people are screwed if they can't find an employer that will hire an inexperienced uneducated person for office management jobs. Give them a basic understanding of machine, tools, carpentry, physics, and a couple certifications. That gives them a career out of highschool instead of ten years of menial labor.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I think the technology is ready for us to move away from the one size fits all solution, that is schools, and move to individually tailored curriculum for each person.

[Vistulange]

The purpose of education is not to simply instil "life skills" and get people into employment, though obviously those things are important to some extent. It's to elevate the learners, produce a well-informed citizenry capable of critical thinking, and expand the opportunities available to children. If you cut things like biology or history from the school curriculum in favour of more "practical" lessons you are not only creating a generation of historically and scientifically illiterate voters and so encouraging things such as Holocaust denial, anti-environmentalism and the anti-vaccination movement, you're also cutting off the opportunity for many children- particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds- to discover that they enjoy and/or possess an aptitude for those areas. Additionally, as others have noted, many of the skills children acquire from studying things like English or history are important transferable skills that will be of use to them in whatever path they chose to pursue in life.

Whenever arguments such as this one come up, the things people wish for children to learn in school- domestic skills, how taxation works, and so forth- are often things that should really be the parents' obligation to teach.

Pretty much this.

Mathematics is useful to know even if we have super duper capable calculators - you can't really use a calculator if you don't know the principle of what you're trying to do. It's like me, not knowing statistics, being given a program to do the calculating for me. If I can't interpret the results, or even know what I need to input for what reason, it's practically worthless to me.

[Dazchan]

For anyone going into mathematics, prime numbers are useful. Even if you’re not going into mathematics, they’re used in so many mathematical operations, best t’teach ‘em early.

True... to find the Least Common Multiple or the Highest Common Factor for a group of numbers involve prime numbers... but they can be calculated easily on the internet.

Your post reminds me of the time the power went out at my local shopping centre. The greengrocer was still open, having manually opened the drawer on the cash register, but refused to allow me to buy my 45c apple with a $5 note because the cashier couldn’t calculate the change.

As I always tell my students: technology is not a substitute for learning to do things for yourself.

[Thepeopl]

School is responsible for learning how to learn.
How do you find useful information (in my days, the library, dictionaries and encyclopedia).

Also school should give students a basic understanding of history, biology, chemistry, geography, psychology, technology, art, music and sports
And a profound knowledge of languages (reading, writing and foreign languages) and mathematics.

It would be nice to also add basic budgeting and forms, so you know how to read it and how to fill them out.

Cooking, cleaning, basic repairs, body hygiene, sex education, social/ digital etiquette, gardening/ growing your own food, first aid, washing and how read a manual should be in the curriculum as well. A lot of parents don't educate their kids since they themselves don't know the basics or are way too busy/tired to teach them.

Since I live in the Netherlands, I had a great time in school, soaking up my knowledge. So yes, my school taught useful skills to me. I do win a lot when playing trivia games.