Recently there have been some advertisements promoting people to review the current Australian School Curriculum for all of their schooling in the subjects of English, History, Mathematics and Science.

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home


At the moment English is a mandatory subject and must be taken at some level throughout a students school, even in their final years when they are given the opportunity to choose all of their subjects, they must choose English.

I started to think to myself "There are some subjects that students instantly turn their noses up at that should be made mandatory or at least more available as these subjects are more beneficial in modern life."

This is why I would like to know:
Which subjects do you think should be taught in schools; if the subject is already being taught, what measures do you think could be taken in order to promote or insist that students undertake these subjects in order to benefit themselves?

And also;

What subjects do you think are becoming redundant and/or are overvalued in terms of practical use in modern day life as opposed to job specific requirements for which it would seem they are meant for?



I personally think that Economics and Philosophy need a lot more light. Science also, but certainly not English. The English being taught to me at this present day is mostly about techniques used to convey ideas, ideologies or points of view of either the author or the characters. I feel it is redundant teaching most of the people at my school these things as the majority of them that will ever analyse a text in that much detail is far outweighed by those who will not. Not ever.

Economics, I think, are of vital importance to the success of modern people as no matter where you are in the world or who you are and whatever your financial, social, religious etc. status, Economics applies to you in some way or another. If I were to compare the amount of jobs and life situations in which I would need either Economics or the curriculum taught in English at this current day, there is no doubt in my mind that I would see Economics put English to shame.

Not only would Economics allow everyday middle-class families to invest wisely, evaluate their financial stand point and the appropriate actions that they should take in terms of external threats of the economy in order to maintain financial stability, but it would also allow them to become informed voters. My mother, god love her, has no idea about Economics. If she heard it on the news, that is what she believes. If she read it in the paper, that is what she believes. She bases her opinions of politicians and political parties on propaganda and lies. Not only do I find myself trying to correct her, but I also find myself at a loss at how to communicate basic economic theory to someone with absolutely no knowledge of economic principals. Thus, if my mother had a basic knowledge of Economics she may already see for herself that her method of voting is flawed and/or I may be able to explain it in more detail to her and have her understand.

tl;dr If everyone knew Economics, politicians would have a much harder time lying to us.


Now, I'm no philosophical genius and I am certainly very very new to philosophy, but having read and listened to what I have, I feel that I have had my eyes opened to new depths of thinking and understanding. I feel that through learning about philosophy I have unlocked small sections of my brain which have allowed me to look at things a little differently. I believe that people are born as capable as they will ever be, although we do grow to become fully formed, once fully formed, provided we have not exposed our bodies to excess damage i.e. alcohol, drugs, cigarettes etc. then that is as good as they will ever be in terms of anatomical and mental capabilities. But, having said that, I do not believe that everyone reaches their full capabilities ever. There are some that are closer to it than others but for the most part everyone is way off. I believe that Philosophy brings you closer to your full mental capabilities and in fact makes you smarter. This is not to say that I have increased my capabilities in terms of mental prowess, just that I have "put a bit more water in the bucket" so to speak.


Unfortunately, both of these subjects are considered very intellectual and many people are turned off by the idea of "thinking" and "analysing" as opposed to doing Physical Education where they run around kicking a ball. I hate that these subjects, although I believe them to be of vital importance to society, are seen as unimportant and/or not needed for everyday life.


Well? What do you think?

Looking back, it would have been really helpful to learn economics and accounting, how banks, loans, bills, credit, collections agencies, and all that stuff works. That stuff is so important now, and you just have to teach yourself. Same with the legal system - if you are unfortunate enough to have to go to court, (I have had to for a speeding ticket), you need to know how to act and what to say. There are weird legalese code words you can say to get a break, like you can ask for a "prayer for judgment" in some states in which they just let you go free with no fine on the caveat that if you get another ticket it will be worse. But no one tells you that you can utter such a magical phrase and get out of trouble, you just have to figure it out. And yes, it would have been nice to start learning philosophy in high school as well.

http://www.ebookdb.org/item/1052/Eco...Basic-Economic

Or the direct link: http://www.hacer.org/pdf/Hazlitt00.pdf

Save it to your computer and it's yours forever.


See now, if many of the people currently needing economic knowledge had books like that the world could quite possibly be a better place.

I disagree, economics should not be a compulsory subject. Politicians will always be able to lie to stupid people, and unfortunately, the majority of the population in pretty much every country are stupid. Over here people living in council estates voted for the Conservative party on the basis that "we could do with a change", without even LOOKING at their policies and seeing how badly it fucks the working class over.

I don't like the idea of kids (above a certain age) being forced to learn what the Government thinks would be most beneficial to them. I mean look at "Intelligent Design". There are already plenty of other compulsory subjects that I think are useless. What does History teach you? Nothing. It doesn't give you any real skills, it just informs you that stuff happened.

I think you missed the point of my whole argument for it being compulsory. By education the people, those living in council estates will not vote so frivolously and thus will not screw over the working class, instead they would carefully take in the economic proposals and decide accordingly. Politicians fool idiots who don't understand that they can be tricked, students of economics understand how they can be tricked and are thus very hard to deceive as they know what to look for, so by teaching everyone about how the government is going to trick you, you then minimise the amount of votes based on ridiculous reasoning.

You're assuming that said people will pass their economics module, and actually take an interest in what they learn. Be realistic, this just won't happen. I don't think it's a case of them not knowing what to look for, it's a case of them not actually taking any active interest at all. They just will not look.

People will vote for whoever is portrayed best by the media, politics has turned into a battle of PR now. Anything that is spoonfed to the stupid masses will be lapped up and accepted as fact. An economics degree will not cure this.

We should teach Christianity in all of the schools, so that all the young children can see the light of the Lord. Our nation needs saved from damnation, and teaching His word in school is the surest way to salvation.

Although highly debatable, I did ask for your opinion and this is it so you won't be seeing a rise out of me despite the fact that I highly disagree.

Actually. I disagree. Thats for them to decide if they want there religion to be that. Me? I dont belive in god If i was brought up in a Christan school. i would of hated it. My whole family dosnt belive in that people can choose there religions.

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.