There are many subjects being taught in schools; music, art, science and many others, but there are only so many subjects that can be taught on a regular basis. In the limited time students have during a school day we turn to standard subjects such as history, science, and math without much thought as to why we teach them. But what are the criteria for subjects that qualify as “should be taught” today?
One goes to school for many things, mainly to learn, but also for social interactions and to prepare oneself for the future. When talking about public schools in particular, what kind of education would be valuable to teach on a regular basis?
To find the answer to this question we must first ask what skills we are looking to develop by going to school. As a general rule, I think mandatory classes should be ones that teach and cultivate skills in students that will be applicable and useful for them in the future. Frankly, some of the mandatory subjects that are taught in schools seem less relevant in today’s society. However, others may argue that the purpose of schooling is not only to produce a workforce.
A subject that I believe should not be considered as important in our standard teaching curriculum is history. When I asked my parents what they remembered about history throughout their years as a student, they vaguely recalled general topics, and nothing about the actual specific content. Although history may help students to develop skills that come with studying like memorization, I think mandatory classes should serve more of a purpose than developing study skills. Along with teaching students to develop skills such as persistence or conceptual learning, I think that mandatory classes should teach content that may be useful to live in the future.
In the modern-day world which revolves around technology, I believe it is reasonable for programming to be a subject that qualifies as a topic that 뱒hould be taught.? Programming, as you might know, is the process of writing for computer programs. These can range from two lines to millions of lines of code that work together to run applications. Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Google are all applications that people use every day thanks to computer programming.
Today, programming is costly and exclusive to children with more resources. By making programming a subject that is taught in schools, comparable in importance to math, it would give many kids the opportunity to develop meaningful skills to have in life while also developing their logic and problem-solving skills.
I believe that as our society begins to change with the constantly growing technology, the school curriculum should change as well, helping to prepare students for their lives ahead of them.
Tyler Park, Grade 9
Harvard-Westlake School
