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[mcjmetroid]

What do you think needs to be taught at schools these days.? Education to me seems to be failing modern kids for the most part.
In my opinion essential subjects should be.

Subjects I'd put in:

1: strength and conditioning
A form of biology and PE but much less phoned in. What can be more important to your students that teaching then how to live longer?
This program should tech students how to exercise at home as well as look at current students for any obvious health issues. Bad posture etc.

2: Programming
I know some schools have this but every school needs it. It doesn't have to be compulsory but a choice subject later on but I feel like it should be dabbled in at a very young age even.
It's the king of thing as well that will show some real talent for students that may not be good at school otherwise.

3: Driving
I believe Americans and lot of other countries do this already but it's shameful my country doesn't and a lot of others don't.
School should about teaching you real world life skills.

4: Social media civics and online ethics
Don't really have a fancy name for this and this one could get messy in the wrong hands but

A course teaching students about the dangers of online content and how you should check your sources. Some case studies done into bad cases ( such as that maga kid where social media exploded without evidence)

Again this one could get messy but if it can be worked out essential.

What I would downplay or take out?
1: Religion or theology

Whether you're religious or not I've never felt like religion has a place as a compulsory subject in schools. It can be used as a basis for basic teachings on good ethics but some countries like my own teach it a LOT especially to young kids and frankly.. kids aren't buying it anymore.

If it's trying to teach kids to be spiritual..ya ok I can buy that but as an essential life skill? Nope. I say downplayed. Theology can be studied in college if someone is really that interested.

2: Dead native languages

A big one for me. School should be taught essential languages that are still being used..
Kids shouldn't be used as a tool for national pride. If you're language is on the ropes ( Like Irish for me) then it's time to let it go

I'd say name it a choice subject in secondary school. At the moment it's compulsory with Maths and English for us and it's a joke to me.


That's all I got so far? What subjects would you take out and what would you put in?

 

[bitbydeath]

A course that specifically aims at what they want to do when they’re older. Lay everything on the table so their future studies can be pinpointed to what they’re actually interested in and not useless crap they’ll never use again like fractions.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

Religion should be taken out of every school in America. In college, fine. If you want to be as useful as someone with a gender studies degree, by all means. But children shouldn't be going to school to be taught fiction as the basis of their entire existence. Maybe mention them in historical terms as the effects they had on certain time periods or whatever.

 

[MastAndo]

Schools generally do a pretty terrible job of preparing kids for the real world. Personal finance courses, at the very least, should be mandatory.

 

[nush]

Home finances

What bills and taxes need to be paid for the home, also credit card and loan management.

 

[Ionian]

Agree that Irish should be optional once you get to secondary school. It's basically useless for most people once you leave school.

Most people forget it, I know I barely remember it after having to do it my entire school life. Shouldn't be compulsory as it's useless in everyday life.

 

[Alx]

I wouldn't filter the fields to be taught by the "is useful in everyday life" rule, because education and culture is more than learning a job or practical skills. Things like art, music, history, (some will even say mathematics) aren't exactly a requirement for most people daily life, but are still important to have and develop.
That being said, I mostly agree with the list in OP, except maybe for the "dead language" part ; although maybe not compulsory, it's important to teach ancient/traditional culture (I'm quite happy of having learnt latin and greek at school, and feel sad to see that it's becoming less common).
Things like "driving" aren't exactly deep enough for a full course at school, but there should be dedicated sessions here and there (I remember taking some kind of quiz to validate the "right" to drive a moped back in middle school, but that was pretty basic). Same goes for CPR and other safety training.

 

[nush]

Agree that Irish should be optional once you get to secondary school. It's basically useless for most people once you leave school.

Most people forget it, I know I barely remember it after having to do it my entire school life. Shouldn't be compulsory as it's useless in everyday life.

The motivation and necessity to learn of foreign language when you live in a predominantly English speaking country just isn't really there. I was taught French, I wasn't interested in in, ended up with a C grade. Never used that French at all.

Ironically my French teacher left to teach Russian so on her last day she decided to teach us some Russian "Hello, how are you?", I've used that twice, one of which was legendary.

 

[M1chl]

Finance should absolutely be put there, maybe later investing and all that stuff....

 

[Soodanim]

I feel like Latin should be taught in schools, at least in European countries, purely because it's a foundation for so many languages. When I was in school we did 3 of French, 1 of those with German as well, then a choice for the last two.

Religion should be replaced with something that teaches the underlying ethics and lessons without the fiction. If that's not enough for a whole year, make it a part of a broader subject about life. They used to teach you how to do things like balance a cheque book. When I was at school they replaced RE with Humanities, but all we did was learn about the Suffragettes. I barely remember anything except that those lessons took place, because it's useless to me. That could have been a couple lessons in History instead of Tudors.

I have a friend who is a support teacher for 5 year olds, and I have a problem with how they teach language. They now teach you how to write the letters in a joined up way from the beginning, so they're being taught an incorrect form of the base letter. On top of that, they teach them what a "digraph" is. Yeah, I had never heard of that either. It's where two letters make a different sound together. Why does a 5 year old need to know that? They also teach sign language, which I'm neutral on. It's niche, but it doesn't hurt to know it.

 

[Peggies]

Agree that Irish should be optional once you get to secondary school. It's basically useless for most people once you leave school.

Most people forget it, I know I barely remember it after having to do it my entire school life. Shouldn't be compulsory as it's useless in everyday life.

How can you say that? If I were living in a country with an ancient supercool druid language, I'd learn the hell out of it.

 

[Ionian]

How can you say that? If I were living in a country with an ancient supercool druid language, I'd learn the hell out of it.

Ah just should be an option, it's rammed down our throats at a young age and through the entirety of school and has no real use for most people once they leave and go to college.

If it wasn't forced I'm sure a lot of people would pick it as an option. I even chose to go to the Gaelteacht (Irish only speaking summer camp) when I was younger.

Just really has no use unless you get into a field that uses it, like teaching etc. It's also not very easy and far from intuitive.



Every person in that video would have had to learn it for well over a decade. Probably 13-14 years if they finished primary and secondary school.

You just forget it when you don't have to use it.

 

[Peggies]

Ah just should be an option, it's rammed down our throats at a young age and through the entirety of school and has no real use for most people once they leave and go to college.

If it wasn't forced I'm sure a lot of people would pick it as an option. I even chose to go to the Gaelteacht (Irish only speaking summer camp) when I was younger.

Just really has no use unless you get into a field that uses it, like teaching etc. It's also not very easy and far from intuitive.

I know, I tried it once at university. Hardcore! So therefore I'd find it sad, if young people missed the oportunity to learn it properly.
But maybe you are right and leaving them a choice would be the better option.

 

[Alx]

I have a friend who is a support teacher for 5 year olds, and I have a problem with how they teach language. They now teach you how to write the letters in a joined up way from the beginning, so they're being taught an incorrect form of the base letter. On top of that, they teach them what a "digraph" is. Yeah, I had never heard of that either. It's where two letters make a different sound together. Why does a 5 year old need to know that?

Eh, sounds natural to me, that's how it has always been taught in France, and learning "joined up way" is actually more natural for kids writing with a pen (sure once you're an adult you'll use a keyboard more often than a pen, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn handwriting).

Also it's very important for kids to understand that two letters together can have a different sound, especially because it's counter-intuitive when you're learning to read. Knowing how it's called can't hurt (I'll admit that I didn't know the word "digraph", I thought it was "diphtongue" which is actually something different).

 

[Ionian]

I know, I tried it once at university. Hardcore! So therefore I'd find it sad, if young people missed the oportunity to learn it properly.
But maybe you are right and leaving them a choice would be the better option.

Yeah it is sad it's a dying language but being occupied by the Brits for 500 years and being forced to speak English didn't really help things.

There still are places in Ireland that speak it daily but they're mostly in the far west, or north. The combination of the thick accents and Irish make it nearly unintelligible. Those places are mad about the language. haha

Fair play to you for trying it out though, that's awesome.

Vid for ya

 

[kraspkibble]

How can you say that? If I were living in a country with an ancient supercool druid language, I'd learn the hell out of it.

i'm scottish but not much use learning gaelic. apparently only 57,000 are fluent and 87,000 have some level of understanding. That's out of a population of 5,494,000 people. 1.04% are fluent and 1.58% with some understanding of it. some people in Canada speak it but only like 1,000 or so. I've only ever heard someone speaking it on TV/movies and only seen it written on signs in public like this:

 

[Peggies]

Yeah it is sad it's a dying language but being occupied by the Brits for 500 years and being forced to speak English didn't really help things.

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

Should learn:

- religions+ideologies. Not just one, but many. And talk about *why* they exist and what they try to achieve. Take away religion and you still need to make decisions, so best learn to be ethical. Also art+history since it is very much related.
- programming+formal_logic. obviously. It teaches you to look at the world and detect patterns. The world relies on digital, best learn to understand it.
- finance. It's insane that we just ignore this.
- building stuff to teach basic physics.
- debating. learn to detect fallacies and manipulation.

But let's be honest, the current school systems are about cutting costs, common denominators and producing docile workers.

I'm glad I don't have kids, because I would get real mad at the school system.

Do like Elon, start your own school for your own kids. Take actual responsibility for the future of your offspring. It's supposed to be important.

 

[German Hops]

Well, I'm a pretty practical person so I'd have to say teaching young people how to cook, clean, do their own laundry, maintain a budget, do taxes, pay bills/explain bills, use tools, basic home maintenance, mortgage information, car maintenance...you know, the things people take for granted and then either refuse to do (but my mom does my laundry, why do I need to do it??) or just pay or expect others to do it for them. The problem with relying on so many other people to take care of things in your own life is that you get taken advantage of or things get really screwed up. Plus, where's the sense of pride and accomplishment in sourcing your life out so much?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I agree with the physical education. Most kids don't receive it from their parents nor teachers, and often the parents (raises hand) and teachers are fatties themselves, unable to provide an example of the nutrition and fitness they're preaching.

Speaking of nutrition, "home ec" should be overhauled and turned into a requirement. The idea is... running the basics of a western household, whether you are male or female. Can you bake things? Can you clean things, and what should you use to clean those things? Can you organize your desk or bedroom or dorm-room? Can you cook a meal for yourself and a guest without creating tons of waste and/or mess?

I disagree w the exclusion of religion, speaking from the experience of someone who went through quite a lot of it as a kid. The good schools will give you a broad education on religion that you describe, even if the school is a specific religion (in my case, a christian school). You will learn about all major religions, their scriptures, their foundational doctrines, etc. A religious school -- at a minimum -- wants its students capable of proselytization of competing religious orders. An adult will need the basic tools of understanding the other person's belief system. Lotta people lack that social skill.

Also, the christian Bible is woven into a lot of events of the last 2000 years. Our art and literature draw from it heavily, and it is one of the chief documents that helped improve worldwide literacy. The goal would not be to preach the religion to the kid but -- as described above -- give them a working knowledge and how it has affected our history, our art, our legal system, etc. These are factual impacts that the bible had on our culture. If someone doesn't feel particularly patriotic, they should still learn what the 50 stars and 13 stripes mean (to make a comparison). The goal shouldn't be to convert students to the christian religion, but to make them aware of how the christian religion has impacted our society, both the good and the bad.

 

[Soodanim]

Eh, sounds natural to me, that's how it has always been taught in France, and learning "joined up way" is actually more natural for kids writing with a pen (sure once you're an adult you'll use a keyboard more often than a pen, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn handwriting).

Also it's very important for kids to understand that two letters together can have a different sound, especially because it's counter-intuitive when you're learning to read. Knowing how it's called can't hurt (I'll admit that I didn't know the word "digraph", I thought it was "diphtongue" which is actually something different).

I never liked cursive/joined up letters, and dropped it as soon as I could. When I went through school Infants was individual letters, Primary was joined up, then Secondary onwards was whatever you wanted. Kids' writing is seldom tidy as it is, making them learn their basic letters in a messier form just makes it unintelligible. It's like running before you can walk.

It's important to know different sounds, but I think it further complicates things for them to have to remember digraphs and trigraphs and what they mean, just get the basics down.

 

[Punished Miku]

Paging TrainedRage

 

[Lanrutcon]

History. Muuuuch more history. And don't pussyfoot around the sensitive stuff. Learn who died so you can sit on your ass and vomit nonsense onto Twitter.

 

[p_xavier]

My school program was one from 1955 but in 1995 cause I'm from a poor place. We were the last year to have the hands-on program. We had to pick up 5 from thess electives: home economics, typewriting, food cooking, plumbing, industrial design, mecanics, astronomy, government institutions and world war 2 history. Schools are slowly reverting back to these type of programs here but not quickly enough. I find school to be worthless now and humanities is the cause of this IMO.

 

[CrankyJay™]

OP should include financial literacy and nutrition.

 

[AJUMP23]

We should teach more Basic economics, as well as practical personal finance. History, people don't seem to think it matters, but we have done such a poor job of teaching it in the US, people know nothing of it, or have a perverted view of it.

Downplay learning social justice.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

More lesbian dance theory and more racially inclusive math.

 

[Valonquar]

There should be an entire class on interest rates, mortgages, and student loans senior year.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

 

[Majmun]

In:
Spirituality
Psychology

Out
Religion
Crazy math

Math should stay in, but come on...the majority of math you’ll learn won’t be applied in real life. Unless you want to become a rocket scientist.

And I don’t think kids should be raised as capitalists at early age. Finances is fine, but for your own survival. So no wallstreet shit.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

In:
Spirituality
Psychology

Out
Religion
Crazy math

Math should stay in, but come on...the majority of math you’ll learn won’t be applied in real life. Unless you want to become a rocket scientist.

And I don’t think kids should be raised as capitalists at early age. Finances is fine, but for your own survival. So no wallstreet shit.

I'm curious to hear more about your views why "spirituality" should be in but "religion" should be out, if you wouldn't mind going into more detail.

One of the main arguments in favor of including religion is the historical and cultural aspect. Where would "spirituality" fit into a standardized education, in your opinion?

 

[EverydayBeast]

Yeah it's astonishing that things like weight lifting, driving aren't really taught in school. Right now the biggest draw is Vikings and that should be taught (Raiding England, King of Norway etc.) it's just too good of a piece of history to not be taught.

 

[nkarafo]

Some cooking lessons would also be useful.

Religion should be out. It should be a part of history lessons that teaches you what every major religion is about, without trying to convert you to one.

 

[Majmun]

I'm curious to hear more about your views why "spirituality" should be in but "religion" should be out, if you wouldn't mind going into more detail.

One of the main arguments in favor of including religion is the historical and cultural aspect. Where would "spirituality" fit into a standardized education, in your opinion?

Religion divides and has been the cause for many wars and bloodshed. It failed as a spiritual weapon because it doesn't evolve and it's not inclusive. There are too many religions out there and all of them contain something that will prevent humanity to actually reach further.
Religion should be taught during history. Because its ideology is literally forever stuck there.

Spirituality comes from an individual and it evolves. We never needed books to tell us what is wrong or what is right. We as humans are constantly changing and everyone has different needs - we need to adapt - and everyone should be loved. We don't need gods to tell us what we do. God come and go, history proves this. Reaching self-actualization is what we should strive for.

Religion is too limited for this.

 

[dave_d]

We should teach more Basic economics, as well as practical personal finance. History, people don't seem to think it matters, but we have done such a poor job of teaching it in the US, people know nothing of it, or have a perverted view of it.

Downplay learning social justice.

After you learn micro and macro econ it's so obvious how little most people know about it.(Supply and demand, price subjectivity, etc.) As for history I wish they'd get more of the myths out of it. The problem with myths is when they teach those to you other parts of history don't make any sense.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Religion divides and has been the cause for many wars and bloodshed. It failed as a spiritual weapon because it doesn't evolve and it's not inclusive. There are too many religions out there and all of them contain something that will prevent humanity to actually reach further.
Religion should be taught during history. Because its ideology is literally forever stuck there.

Spirituality comes from an individual and it evolves. We never needed books to tell us what is wrong or what is right. We as humans are constantly changing and everyone has different needs - we need to adapt - and everyone should be loved. We don't need gods to tell us what we do. God come and go, history proves this. Reaching self-actualization is what we should strive for.

Religion is too limited for this.

I can understand you beliefs on spirituality, but that runs contrary to how subjects are taught and learned in school. How would a kid receive "pure" teaching on spirituality while at the same time avoiding all the pitfalls of existing religions? How would the kid define "self actualization"? Would it be from a Jungian sense? Or a hindu/buddhist/taoist sense?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Taxes and how to balance a damned checkbook. Oh, and civics needs to make a hard comeback.

 

[showernota]

Society has really improved since religion was taken out of schools.

People have become smarter, less violent, more tolerant, less depressed. Holy science has replaced it, and we’ve seen that ‘science’ cannot be manipulated or changed to fit a certain narrative.

I mean, isn’t it obvious? We’re sooo much better off.

 

[Majmun]

I can understand you beliefs on spirituality, but that runs contrary to how subjects are taught and learned in school. How would a kid receive "pure" teaching on spirituality while at the same time avoiding all the pitfalls of existing religions? How would the kid define "self actualization"? Would it be from a Jungian sense? Or a hindu/buddhist/taoist sense?

Spiritualiy is a sum of many parts, so the approach on how to teach it can be quite different. Especially since everyone is different and needs a different approach.
But it can be taught through psycholgy and biology. The mind and the body, and how they can work together to reach certain goals.

I'm definitely no teacher. But I know that we don't need religion in the class. We need to teach how to love ourselves and others. Religion does not do this.

 

[OnionSnake]

Not sure the age we are talking about here but by freshman year of high school kids should be taught about safe sex practices. The hodge podge of lessons around the country ranging from actual sex education all the way to abstinence only in 2021 is abhorrent. Students should know how things function, how to do things safely, and learn what is right and wrong in regards to sexual interaction.

 

[SuperBabyMethod]

Classes that teach life skills (resume building, how to start a business, stock markets). I know schools already do these things but it should be much more prevalent and should be started before high school.

Schools and teachers have to start teaching and telling kids that college isn’t the end all-be all in life. I grew up in a generation of schools and a society that constantly drilled students that college is the only way to be “successful”. While I think there is value in going to college, it really only is so for a certain number of degrees (nursing, law, engineering) while it is useless for others (gender studies). Kids need to see that there are other great careers that pay well and don’t require much education (sanitation, city bus, firefighter, and other lesser known jobs that pay well without a degree). For some kids, college simply isn’t for them, due to a distaste for education or through academic gaps.

Things that should not be taught are the things like CRT and other Woke madness making it’s way into schools (see the Math-racist thread) that is straight up indoctrination to kids. However people may think of education, particularly public education as it gets a lot of criticism, our goal as teachers is to get you to think analytically and for yourself. Even if I may not be the best teacher, as long as I get my students to see avenues for success in their lives and to always question things, I can be (somewhat) happy about my job.

I do wholly disagree with OP’s statement about ditching dying languages. It’s a tragedy that languages die. Learning other languages exposes us to different ways of thinking of a culture and learning dying languages can instill national pride and sustain culture. Can you imagine if everyone in the world spoke only English? To think and express yourself in only one (and a few other dominant) language? Fuck no. That’s just going to breed imitation and one-way thinking (especially now with how the Woke left loves to tamper with language, particularly English, and you see that shit starting to pierce other cultures and language - Spanish, for example).

 

[celsowmbr]

Do:

- programming

Don't:

- gender ideology

 

[Davey Cakes]

Personal Finance
Public Speaking
Computer Applications
Driving

 

[showernota]

Spiritualiy is a sum of many parts, so the approach on how to teach it can be quite different. Especially since everyone is different and needs a different approach.
But it can be taught through psycholgy and biology. The mind and the body, and how they can work together to reach certain goals.

I'm definitely no teacher. But I know that we don't need religion in the class. We need to teach how to love ourselves and others. Religion does not do this.

See, this is pretty dumb. What is spirituality from a humanist perspective? Did we evolve with some sort of X factor that elevates is from bags of meat and electricity, or is it just mumbo jumbo to give people a sense of self-importance in a world we’re told has no meaning?

‘Spirituality’ without an absolute truth underlying it will never work across a group of people. Someone will always ‘do it wrong,’ the majority consensus will determine what is accepted, and it will become a dangerous religion due to relativistic principles. Self-actualization is making man the gods, which we are not, nor have the capacity to become. Without a higher authority everyone answers to, it doesn’t work. Unfortunately most people seem incapable of believing they can love themselves while not being the center of their own universe.

But hey, maybe more spirituality would get people off prescription drugs, at least. They just have to love themselves and others more I guess, then they’ll stop being depressed.

 

[AJUMP23]

After you learn micro and macro econ it's so obvious how little most people know about it.(Supply and demand, price subjectivity, etc.) As for history I wish they'd get more of the myths out of it. The problem with myths is when they teach those to you other parts of history don't make any sense.

I'm not concerned about Myths, but more about actual historical people and why they did what they did. Myths can be part of history as they influenced the people in those times. From the Greeks and Romans, to the Persians.

One thing that would help history is to make in tangible, go to places where things happened. Take trips to historical sites and learn about what happened there and why.

 

[DeepBreath87]

Considering many many students never learn to read beyond what I consider a 6-8 grade level, can’t do basic algebra, and couldn’t find where they live on a map, I’d say start with that kind of thing.

Basic history about their country and the world. no ideological stuff. Just plain facts.

Religion from the idea that these are what the religions are and where they are practiced. Their place in history.

Personal finance. This is how you balance a budget. This is how you save. That kind of thing.

I think teaching kids how to make a schedule and stick to it is important.

Programming seems like a good idea too.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Most schools are set up to create a steady flow of workers who will have a base level of skill to perform tasks, but be obedient and dependent.

Teaching self sufficiency and skills that lead to ideas of entrepreneurship is simply not in the plan.

 

[dave_d]

I'm not concerned about Myths, but more about actual historical people and why they did what they did. Myths can be part of history as they influenced the people in those times. From the Greeks and Romans, to the Persians.

One thing that would help history is to make in tangible, go to places where things happened. Take trips to historical sites and learn about what happened there and why.

Oh I guess I wasn't clear on that. When I say myths I mean stuff I was literally taught in history courses which wasn't actually true. Things like "The Romans salted the fields at Carthage" or "One of the reasons the US was effective in the revolutionary war was insurgent tactics like picking people off with rifles instead of fighting in lines like the British." (Both are utter nonsense.)

 

[Hudo]

How to git gud.

 

[Majmun]

See, this is pretty dumb. What is spirituality from a humanist perspective? Did we evolve with some sort of X factor that elevates is from bags of meat and electricity, or is it just mumbo jumbo to give people a sense of self-importance in a world we’re told has no meaning?

‘Spirituality’ without an absolute truth underlying it will never work across a group of people. Someone will always ‘do it wrong,’ the majority consensus will determine what is accepted, and it will become a dangerous religion due to relativistic principles. Self-actualization is making man the gods, which we are not, nor have the capacity to become. Without a higher authority everyone answers to, it doesn’t work. Unfortunately most people seem incapable of believing they can love themselves while not being the center of their own universe.

But hey, maybe more spirituality would get people off prescription drugs, at least. They just have to love themselves and others more I guess, then they’ll stop being depressed.

I just don’t think we’re ready for it yet. We’re currently focused on wanting more and more and more. And that leads to never being happy with what you have, leading to depression.

But this is how the current system is set up. We take way too many things for granted and don’t focus on what actually is important.