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Events in history shaped the world we live in today, I do think it’s an important subject. It is quite useful in later life to have the knowledge that ‘history does repeat itself’ and if it’s for the worse knowing that your vote, your actions etc could go a bit of a way to preventing it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I learnt more geography following football than I ever did in school
Cooking.
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.
Teach them that not everyone will make millions from being an influencer or Youtuber
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.
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.
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.
Sorry I meant the Polytechnic of Wales in Pontypridd
Teach them to pull up their pants and put their hat on straight.
Don’t listen to weather forecasts