What should our children learn at school?

[Trillian]

Good question! In primary school this isn't an issue, but in high school it certainly is. Back in the day only peope who aspired to a professional career/university were encouraged to stay on at school and everyone else left to seek out a trade or on the job training such as nursing used to be. But then we moved into an era where it was all about learning, pushing kids towards university who shouldn't really be considering university and keeping them at school. Now we've gone back to encouraging vocational education as well as uni and many highschools now offer VET courses to give kids a headstart on their trades. I know at my brothers highschool (and the one some of my kids will go to) have moved towards this and closely work with the TAFE to provide kids with the opportunity to do 'practical' subjects such as fabrication/construction, hospitality, childcare, and sports coaching as well as their traditional subjects. I think once kids get to that age, they should be given options to learn for fun and for life - so if you have a kid who is interested in medieval history but wants to be a machine fitter, then let them do history as well as their practical course. If subjects like history and advanced maths aren't offered because they serve no real life purpose, we're not allowing kids to engage in learning that is interesting to them. I don't think any kid should be made to do the minimum amount that will be enough to see them through adult life at the expense of learning for the love of learning kwim? When I was in year 11 and 12, I did 3unit english. Not because I needed to do it as a prerequisite for any Uni degree I was planning, but because I loved english and the whole process of reading a book and dissecting it afterwards to understand it better. If I had of been told that I couldn't do it because it served no purpose to me I would have been devastated.

Even DH, who used to work as a boiler maker found he used a lot of the advanced trigonometry that he did in high school to help him draft plans and work out formula's for bending metal. He's worked with enough people in that field of work who dropped out of school early, or who did the 'sandpit maths' level at school to know that maths can play a huge part in construction because they were the ones who were screwing up projects because they didn't even know how to work out the circumference of a circle!

[AnyDream]

Our schooling system needs a LOT more emphasis not only on literacy but information literacy and critical thinking skills.

Given that most young people now will never ever open a world book encyclopedia to complete a school project, they *really* need to know what they need to find, how to drive a search engine properly, and how to assess which of the search results actually address their need. And there are a whole lot of literacy skills that sit behind being able to do that.

I also think that teaching the culture of reading instead of just the mechanics is far more likely to result in people being able and inclined to pursue learning once they are adults and have identified what their areas of interest are.

[onthefly]

I think the early years - 4-6 - should focus on social skills, imaginative play, critical reasoning and problem solving, rather than insisting kids rote learn numbers and letters etc. Literacy and numeracy, sure, as part of this process, but they shouldn't be a focus in and of themselves in early learning.

[Shanti]

I think the early years - 4-6 - should focus on social skills, imaginative play, critical reasoning and problem solving, rather than insisting kids rote learn numbers and letters etc. Literacy and numeracy, sure, as part of this process, but they shouldn't be a focus in and of themselves in early learning.

Yep, agree.

I also think kids are tested far too young these days. The primary years should be for exploring etc rather than getting kids tested with exams from such young ages. Too much pressure I say.

[Starfish]

This is a really interesting question.

Personally, I think that schools should teach literacy and numeracy plus a bit of general life skills and ideas, e.g. basic economics, history, health, etc. I think most schools do this okay, but what I think is missing from the current curriculum are creative subjects such as art and music, which I think are a lot more important and beneficial than people give them credit for. Oh and physical education is also important.

The main problem with today's schools IMO is the focus on passing tests and exams rather than learning for the joy or learning, or the practical applications to what children have learnt. This may be the reason for the lack of focus on creative subjects - because how do you assess creativity?

[JLeigh29]

Great question! I agree that Literacy and Numeracy are the foundations of any education. Critical Literacy and Information Technology are essential also. MaryDean put it beautifully.

Not so sure that teaching 'life skills' has to be at the expense of the more 'academic' subjects though... both have real and tangible benefits imo. I sometimes think providing an introduction (or the option to do this) into a more diverse range of subject areas would be beneficial so that students learn more about what is out there and what kinds of areas they could delve more deeply into (whether for work or pleasure). I sometimes wonder whether I'd have chosen a different career path (or those around me would have) if we'd have known more about what different options were out there (in all honesty, as a teenager, I basically thought it was tradie, lawyer, doctor, teacher or hairdresser and that was about it! )

Ooooh, it's a curly question and I'm not sure there is even one 'right' answer...

[Astrid]

Not so sure that teaching 'life skills' has to be at the expense of the more 'academic' subjects though... both have real and tangible benefits imo. I sometimes think providing an introduction (or the option to do this) into a more diverse range of subject areas would be beneficial so that students learn more about what is out there and what kinds of areas they could delve more deeply into (whether for work or pleasure). I sometimes wonder whether I'd have chosen a different career path (or those around me would have) if we'd have known more about what different options were out there (in all honesty, as a teenager, I basically thought it was tradie, lawyer, doctor, teacher or hairdresser and that was about it! )

.

So true, there are so many professions out there that we just never got to know about.