Things they should teach you in school

[Citizen's Nephew]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

Coding. All the tech being used has to be coded. There is still a tiny percentage of the world's population with enough coding knowledge in all the necessary languages needed (including some major tech running older languages). I know they teach 'some' but it should be like being able to read and write properly, it's that important.

Edit: ask a kid how a smartphone works? What programming language does it use? How is it made?

[dembethewarrior]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

Coding. All the tech being used has to be coded. There is still a tiny percentage of the world's population with enough coding knowledge in all the necessary languages needed (including some major tech running older languages). I know they teach 'some' but it should be like being able to read and write properly, it's that important.

Edit: ask a kid how a smartphone works? What programming language does it use? How is it made?

It is obviously important, but the people that want to get into it surely will? I can see the need for a kid to need to know how to do basics on car maintenance or need to understand finances better, but unless they chose a job in something involving coding why *should* they need to be taught it?

Genuine interest in the answer.

[Rjk]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

How hard it is to conceive a baby, in fact it’s very unlikely you’ll get pregnant after a one off.

Trying for a baby was a ****ing nightmare and so worrying as the months went on, all because you’re misled in school.

I think that's the last thing you want to be teaching a load of horny teenagers

[Canton Kev]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

On the ‘theorems’ note, me and friends were having a chat about school a while back and someone said what use was Pythagoras’ theorem. They were quite surprised when I told them that I use it at least once a week at work, I told them to look around them, every square corner of the building we were in owed it’s accuracy to 3,4,5. It’s a Godsend in construction, also the formulae for areas of circles come into to play when working out quantities. Set out and built an elliptical (oval) area in a garden a few years back, using maths resulted in a perfect shape. But the main one is our old mate Pythagoras, he saved a lot of head scratching.

That’s fair enough and I don’t deny their importance but it’s very dependant on your line of work though. I haven’t used it or even thought about it in years. Mortgages, loans, personal finance, banking, stocks, etc have been much more prevalent in my life and most of the population compared to circle theorems.

[splott parker]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

That’s fair enough and I don’t deny their importance but it’s very dependant on your line of work though. I haven’t used it or even thought about it in years. Mortgages, loans, personal finance, banking, stocks, etc have been much more prevalent in my life and most of the population compared to circle theorems.

You must have done a bit of d.i.y. Kev. Or even putting a table in a room and having it ‘square’ with the wall, you’re unknowingly using it then. I do like maths though, theorems fascinate me how they solve things.....bit geekish I know, sorry

[DJ-Q]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

I learnt more geography following football than I ever did in school

[splott parker]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

I learnt more geography following football than I ever did in school

You’re not wrong there.

[Llandaff Blue]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

Cooking.

[Citizen's Nephew]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

It is obviously important, but the people that want to get into it surely will? I can see the need for a kid to need to know how to do basics on car maintenance or need to understand finances better, but unless they chose a job in something involving coding why *should* they need to be taught it?

Genuine interest in the answer.

It's a really good question. My view and that of many tech people are that we're so reliant on smart technology that the languages used to code them need to be 'spoken' fluently. Our reliance on the tech also means reliance on a shrinking number of both people and corporations. Asia is leading the way in this and in the west, we're actually illiterate regarding technology by comparison.

Don't forget, self-driving smart cars are the future. They'll be 'fixed' with a laptop. But they'll be 'designed' by coders too. Including the robotics used to manufacture them.

We teach reading and writing but don't expect everyone to go on and use those skills to the highest level. The guy who made the Raspberry Pi, Eben Upton is a Welshman born in Pontypool, and his philosophy about coding and getting kids to learn is brilliant stuff and worth reading. I don't have time to post the articles now but if you follow up from the wiki page you'll find plenty written by him.

But you're right, you'd only need to know the basics to operate at the simplest level. It's really down to an over-dependence on a small number of coders in relation to the amount of tech we use.

It's actually scary how badly computer technology and languages are taught in UK schools compared to other countries.

[The Bloop]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

Teach them that not everyone will make millions from being an influencer or Youtuber

[MOZZER2]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

manners

[bobh]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

Basic DIY stuff and minor electronics. A girl I knew in work made it to 22 and didn’t know how to change a fuse.

Personal finance instead of some of the useless maths we learnt. Differentiation from first principles, Circle Theorems, etc.

I can better that!
Now I started keeping fish when I was 11, back in the mid 60s, so I knew basic electrics.
A year or so ago I asked my daughter's boyfriend ( aged 27 I think) for help changing a lightbulb(I knew how, obviously, but he's 6'4" so I wouldn't need to get the stepladder out.)
He'd never changed a bulb, so I had to explain him to hold the fitting "don't pull it down, but stop me pushing it up..." while I twisted the bulbs out and in.

[Citizen's Nephew]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

Teach them that not everyone will make millions from being an influencer or Youtuber

I'm just off to set that up on YouTube!

[bobh]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

How hard it is to conceive a baby, in fact it’s very unlikely you’ll get pregnant after a one off.

Trying for a baby was a ****ing nightmare and so worrying as the months went on, all because you’re misled in school.

I'd say for most people the opposite is true. I had 4 kids before I found out what was causing it and got snipped.
But I sympstise with people who find it difficult. My sister had trouble conceiving, but eventually did, had one boy, then conceived several more that didn't go to term - turned out the first pregnancy triggered a condition called Lupus, which caused subsequent pregnancies to fai.

[Canton Kev]

Re: Things they should teach you in school

You must have done a bit of d.i.y. Kev. Or even putting a table in a room and having it ‘square’ with the wall, you’re unknowingly using it then. I do like maths though, theorems fascinate me how they solve things.....bit geekish I know, sorry

I like maths too, more the physics side of however.

As I said, I understand their importance and hidden uses. It’s more the months I spent doing radians, arcs, tangents to the diameter etc and equations like surface area of a sphere I would’ve preferred if they’d been spent on more obvious life skills that involve maths. Whilst I may have unknowingly used circle theorems, the actual methods I was taught haven’t come up in my life since my A Level exams.