Originally Posted by
War_Hero
My school forced me to take an accounting/economic/random shit class called careers, surprisingly, it's been very useful.
While I'm not a fan of English and writing, it should be mandatory just to help make sure the population stays reasonably literate.
Literacy, grammar and punctuation are essential, as well as properly structuring the form of text that you intend to write, but in my opinion it is not necessary for the geophysicist to know what the Bernard Shaw was trying to tell us about the hypocrisy in middle-class morality when concerning the lower class of 1930s England. Although his views may incorporate morals and ethics which may be studied in philosophy, I do not believe it to be an essential part in ones education of the English language.
I'm not surprised that the careers class you took has helped you in life.
Originally Posted by
Galt
If economics is taught in government schools then you can be certain that the government will decide on what you will learn in it. They'll probably tell you FDR was an economic mastermind or someshit. Students of economics in government schools end up becoming useful idiots.
The exact same thing would happen with philosophy. They'd teach you all about the wonders of Uncle Kant et al.
Certainly though, choosing to study economics in university would be wise.
What kind of world do you think we live in? The government these days isn't run by the Roman Catholic Church and government schools are taught economics from all schools, mainly that of Maynard Keynes, which almost every democratic economy is run by. You will be shown the theories and methods of all economists that have made an impact in economic study but you mainly focus on what is relevant to the country you live in and it's trading partners which effect it the most.
Also, I feel that Philosophy would be the same. Not only are people able to access almost every kind of information there is available today via the internet but we fortunately have not lost our individuality over the years and many people, even without and Socratic knowledge, will question almost everything that is told to them or brought to their attention.
Originally Posted by
Stonewall
It's doing you and everyone else a public service to save you from damnation, to save your soul from being handed to the devil and your eternal life drawn through the gates of hell. It's doing a public service to send the children of today into salvation at the hand of the Lord by teaching them the good word in our schools.
Watch what you say in here, this topic isn't about whether society needs reminding of the Christian faith and it's powers of good. This thread is not about religion, it is about education.
Originally Posted by
Dr_Strangelove
English should of course be taught. I think Spanish and Mandarin should be compulsory too. You'll then be able to communicate with pretty much the entire world.
That is a interesting and I think a great comment.
Many non-english speaking schools in says France, Japan etc. learn a different language, usually English, as a core subject. I think that English speaking countries are at an advantage and a disadvantage in the same point.
The most dominant countries in the world in terms of military, political and economic standing are mostly English speaking countires, therefore they are at an advantage as opposed to those who do not speak English as their first language who then have to learn it as a second language. Thus speaking it as a first saves you from have to learn a second. Having said this,
Multilingualism is the use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population.
those who are born and raised to speak English are usually monolingual and are at a severe disadvantage when in a job that requires them to deal with people from other countries or if they are in a foreign country. Also, it is well known that learning 2 language increases ones linguistic competency and makes it a lot easier to learn new languages, for example, Japanese people have great difficulty in pronouncing the letter L and so by learning English their linguistic skills are greatly improved.
If a war broke out, those of non-english speaking countries, in my opinion, would be advantaged in terms of understanding uncoded messages and intelligence interception.
I think you have picked 2 of the better languages that may be needed by those who deal with overseas clients. I would also have said maybe Portuguese and Russian.