Hypothetical school curriculum for grades 1 - 12

[Phlegmak]

So, you're in charge of making the school curriculum for students from grades 1st through 12th (or whatever the equivalent is in your country). In the US, grades 1 - 8 are called grammar school and 9 - 12 are high school.

So, my own school curriculum that I would force youngsters to learn is mostly the same as what it is today, but with much more emphasis on life skills, and actually knowledge of everyday things. For example, kids would learn what occurs on a farm and how crops make it to the supermarket. Sex education, gun handling, 2 extra languages, and cooking would be high on the list of things to learn as well.

Then I must come to the point of what the Hell is the purpose of learning so many different forms of arithmetic. The only purposes I can think of are:
a) force children's brains to exercise, making them smarter, and b) preparing a tiny handful of those millions of children to become scientists, which are necessary for a nation's future.

 

[I'm Cleo!]

I agree 100% with Phlegmak that a "life skills" course is a great idea to include in school curricula. My wife took an "independent family living" course in High School, and she uses it every day -- far more than Calculus, Physics, English Literature, &c.

I also think there should be a mandatory statistics class, and some kind of logic / politics class to equip students to make informed choices about participating in the modern world. Something to encourage them to think critically about things like advertising and claims made by politicians. A real "civics" class.

Curricula should also be more flexible. While I think the statistics and civics classes should be mandatory, other things need not be. Why should every college-bound high schooler take Calculus? Or English Literature? Honestly, I could have gone straight through college without ever having read Dombey and Son, and I have friends who would have been more than happy not to have taken AP Calculus.

Cleo

 

[Ansar]

I like the way it's set up right now, just force a foreign language into the elementary and middle school curriculum depending on the area of the country (Florida - Spanish, California - Spanish/Mandarin, North - French, etc...)

I also think there should be a mandatory statistics class, and some kind of logic / politics class to equip students to make informed choices about participating in the modern world. Something to encourage them to think critically about things like advertising and claims made by politicians. A real "civics" class.

My teacher always stresses that we should take Statistics. Why?

I agree on the "civics" class. American Government is a joke

 

[Phlegmak]

I agree 100% with Phlegmak that a "life skills" course is a great idea to include in school curricula. My wife took an "independent family living" course in High School, and she uses it every day -- far more than Calculus, Physics, English Literature, &c.

I also think there should be a mandatory statistics class, and some kind of logic / politics class to equip students to make informed choices about participating in the modern world. Something to encourage them to think critically about things like advertising and claims made by politicians. A real "civics" class.

Curricula should also be more flexible. While I think the statistics and civics classes should be mandatory, other things need not be. Why should every college-bound high schooler take Calculus? Or English Literature? Honestly, I could have gone straight through college without ever having read Dombey and Son, and I have friends who would have been more than happy not to have taken AP Calculus.

Cleo

Critical thinking. That's a good one. I should have mentioned that.

EDIT: I just realized something. I always thought that it was important that children knew where their food came from. However, showing children farm animals and eggs requires that they know how animals have sex. So then what is the proper age in which children should be taught about sex? I personally have no problem if they're taught at 6, but a lot of parents would be really annoyed at that.