Sort of along the lines of Kastelco - on the "extras" that are overlooked (swimming; skating etc). Unfortunately schools here don't have the $$ to have such facilities and therefore the parents have to augment. Our 5 year old spent a year in Tae Kwon Do and is in tennis lessons now. Skating is due up this fall. At this point, I don't see any one thing as dominant - just a smattering until he can develop an interest in "something".
Basic math, English, geography, history amongst others come to mind as “musts”
Basic math? Ahem. Not good enough.
Anyways my high school years were wasted - they gave me "options" and I took the wrong ones. In my world each kid would take the following mandatory classes:
Year of electrickery, couple of years of auto, home ec, law, accounting, economics, (savings and/or investment course), typing, phsycology and relationships (personal and business). And the list is based on what I think of NOW - I know there are far more.
The bloody system is geared toward:
(A) Ensuring you go to university or sweep floors - no middle ground (pumping gas and being a checkout girl are all out - due to automation)
(B) Ensuring you take (now its 1?) French so you can read both sides of the coupons.
Some might object when I say "Calculus; Algebra and Trig" - 3 courses in my day. All a waste - I think perhaps ONE of the three should be mandatory, but they should have bulked up on some of the above.
But high school, IMO, based on the "mandatories" DOES NOT prepare you for life - and that is criminal. 3 "arts". Cripes. Cancel that junk. By the time you get to high school - they should start at 8:30 and for 1 hour the entire school should be doing basic exercises - days of weights; walking; running etc.
Well at least I know where I screwed up so at least I can guide my sons into better choices. And when they get homework, zero tolerance on the TV. I would have done far better without the tube.
Sadly I didn't take much of the above - and I have suffered. How far can I go with lithography? Knowing about transmission over high-tension power lines? Drafting? Useless - all of it. And no one "advised" me - as long as I took the proper mandatories who is to say?? And all the mandatories were advanced - had to be - "incase" I "wanted" to go to university.
My wife (she is the educated one - I barely finised hi-skoo) can't believe how I went all those years to high school and never took biology. Biology!!! How basic a course is that? Well we had a choice - "physics" OR "biology".
Didn't care much about bi-ology..
Didn't know nothin bout his-tory..
..
..
oh what a wonderful education system it coulda woulda shoulda be.
I could go on for hours - but there is so much out there I do not agree with. And people just accept it. Even yourself - you say "history" - define that. What period of history is important? Is it critical that I know about pelt salesmen floating down the St. Laurence? Or perhaps I should know more about the entire world history. I know ZERO about the world. I probably know more about American history than Canadian. And that isn't right. But being taught about Canadian history exclusively - excuse my Quebecois - jeez what colossal a waste of time.
Want to know the state of the future - read the stats on obesity and diabetes amoungst children. CHILDREN. And watch the fine inspiring scholars in the US, on Jaywalk - who figure the earth goes around the moon; the US fought Canucks in World War II; and have troubles naming their current VP Cheney off a picture. It is brutal - and don't fear - the above answers were from soon-to-be-teachers. Yes a fine lot.
Sick of all of it.
Signed Kastelco. (HA HA HA HA).
Blake.
PS: The best of course is that most think the VP is actually Al Gore.. but that's another story....
"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
Tuco (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
"An umbrella with holes is better than no umbrella at all."
Dr. Alexander Elder on using stops.
