2011 25
The High School Subjects that Make a Difference
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Education with No Comments
-basic household management, how to live on your own.
-computer science/programming.
-history of science.
-home medicine and disease prevention.
-digital photography/video both capture and editing.
-basic accounting and business law.
-entrepreneurship (business plans and so on)
-statistics and probability.
-home economics, how to file for taxes, basic macroeconomic principles.
-principles of logic, epistemology and ethics (Philosophy)
-sustainable development.
-public speaking (done in UK and US but not continental Europe)
-understanding government
-introduction to engineering, the basic technologies that surround us.
-modern geography/astronomy including all types of digital maps and mapping resources.
-conflict resolution, dispute resolution, introduction to law.I have been editing this post adding the the best suggestions. Thanks for the contributions!
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Stefanos on October 26, 2011 ·
Physical Ed. Completely necessary given today’s obesity epidemic in youth. Also nutrition in the same logic
Much more important though are creativity enhancing courses such as arts and writing.
Mauricio Espinosa on October 26, 2011 ·
Creativity, Innovation, Draw, Design, Self Knowledge, Meditation
BG on October 26, 2011 ·
No todos los adolescentes van a estudiar carreras de ingeniería o ciencias. Tendrías que haber tenido esto en cuenta, desde luego. Además, la educación que se da a nivel pre-universitario es de carácter general, no puedes meter un “programming” o un “entrepreneurship” en un nivel donde hay chicos que estudiarán para ser abogados, médicos o periodistas.
Para dar estos cursos, aunque sea de carácter introductorio en primer año y de manera mas avanzada en los siguientes años, ya están las propias carreras.
Creo que es la primera vez que estoy tan en desacuerdo con tu opinión… 🙂
Matias on October 26, 2011 ·
1. Personal development.
2. Social Skills: Engage with communities, social media, using internet for engage with others, Free Software Movement
3. Arts.
4. Lateral thinking.
5. Time managment (Systems like GTD).
Aldo on October 26, 2011 ·
no art?
gesus on October 26, 2011 ·
Learn to learn as a subject.
Train the learning skills,
elisabeth on October 27, 2011 ·
Totalmente de acuerdo contigo. Aunque no todos van a estudiar por el lado de Ciencias, muchos de los aspectos que comentas son básicos y deberian tener un minimo de conocimiento.
Totally agree with you. Not all of them are going to stydy Computing or Medicine, but most of the subjects you takl about are basic and they should be some knowlegde about that. All of us should be.
Patxi on October 27, 2011 ·
Great post. I’d add only two more:
Teamwork. Most people work as part of organizations, very few work on an isolated manner
>> How to work as part of a team and organization, both as a team member, leader and follower.
>> What are institutions? What are their positives and negatives? What are their rules?
Personal finance. Probably as part of “basic household management”, but definitely a subject on its own.
Alex on October 28, 2011 ·
Sobre arte, desarrollo del pensamiento creativo, emprendimiento social, deportes, etc… ¿nada?
Juan Ortiz on October 30, 2011 ·
Genial post y conversation opener. por supuesto, esto no va a cambiar demaciado :S En Argentina el sistema educativo es similar, y el efecto es que los estudiante sse encuentran muy perdidos al temrinar la secundaria a la hora de encarar el mundo (de forma similar a los universitariso, que no saben como pasar del mundo academico al real)
BG, sobre tu comentario ” “entrepreneurship” en un nivel donde hay chicos que estudiarán para ser abogados, médicos o periodistas.”, me parece que entrepenurship seria especialmente utiles para estos perfiles. No todo entrepeneur tiene que tener base tecnica, ni todo emprendimiento ser de base tecnologica. Las mejores cosas sucedes cuando se aplica tecnologia a otros campos, y peridistas, medicos y abogados han logrado cosas increibles cuando aplican esos conocimientos en un emprendimiento.
Kevin Cullis on October 30, 2011 ·
Martin,
I think you hit the nail on the head. I would clarify that they need to understand basic economics and the proper role of a nations government, i.e. too much versus too little and the right role of government, good versus bad. Steve Jobs brought in the engineering AND the art into Apple’s products, the same needs to be done with ALL business solutions. So I’d say the humanities and arts need to be in there as well. I teach Junior Achievement http://www.ja.org in the US and it is worldwide, but even IT needs to have it’s curriculum upgraded. Add in there agriculture, i.e. organic farming/gardening (see these videos to get the idea http://www.backtoedenfilm.com http://urbanhomestead.org/ ).
Jorge on October 31, 2011 ·
Hola Martin
En mi opinión, toda la educación debe ser refundada, comenzando desde jardín. Y no solamente porque los estudiantes no sepan entrar al mundo profesional, sino porque con la disponibilidad de tecnologías actuales se lograría mucho más aprendizaje un menos tiempo. Para mi lo que habría que enseñar, entre otras cosas es:
– inteligencia emocional con todo lo que ello implica (empatía, resolución de conflictos, etc. Ver Fundación Botin)
– conciencia social
– aprender a comer sanamente
– a cuidar el planeta (cuidado del agua, reciclaje, etc)
– valores éticos (esto especialmente en Argentina)
– todo lo relativo a la creatividad y el estudio de las artes (ver Sir. Ken Robinson )
Con una educación de así, en unos 10 años se podría cambiar a la Argentina.
un saludo!
Nestor on October 31, 2011 ·
Understanding power, behaviour of communities: History of governments and religion.
each year a case study: Rome, Mongol Empire + Japan, English vs Spanish Empire, WWI+II
With focus on families, characters, propaganda.. to make it real so the students know that there are no enlightened/divine guys telling them what to do, just people
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Josep on October 25, 2011 ·
Cultural awareness
Mathematics (for example algebra, calculus, etc not only statistics and probability)