I think some subjects in school do not useful in life

Vietnam
July 11, 2008 10:06am CST
I have to learn so many subjects but I think some of them do not useful in life.I have no chance to use the knowledge I got from these subject in life .So why I have to learn?why don't we cut these subject out of our education program
3 responses
14 Jul 08
My theory is that children are incapable of knowing what they really want to do in life, hence the Governments are so keen on a "general education". A general education gives you, compared to diplomas, degrees, masters, PHDs, etc the basics of all subjects; the general grounding of all subjects so that you are capable of studying any subject further in the future. That is, if you choose to go into College and University. I believe that a good general education is important, but it's also equally important for schools to help children to prepare for College and University life. For the children, who are usually teens at this time, who do not want to go to College or University, they should be offered some form of trade training, depending on what they want to do. It would be quite bad if, for example, a child wanted to be a historian but history was not part of the school education system!
@tigertang (1749)
• Singapore
18 Jul 08
In a way, I do agree with you that school tends to teach you allot of subjects that you don't use later in life and it also does not teach kids skills that they will need later on. I remember hearing one educational expert mention that we are preparing kids to enter our world instead of theirs. Math class, is a prime example. How many of us really end up using algebra or trigonometry in later life? I don't think its as many as those of us who will need to know the math of balancing your cheque book. Imagine how much better we would be today if only we had learned 'money' skills back in primary school. Having said all of that, a successful businessman I once knew said that,"It's not the subject that you study but what you learn from it that counts." Take our liberals arts education. Why do we bother studying things like history or geography or dare I say, English literature when there are few jobs other than teaching these subjects to kids once you become an adult. While these subjects don't qualify you for other jobs outside teaching the subject, they help you train your mind. A philosophy course, for example, helps train people to think, argue and analyse various situations. A course of English literature helps you to understand the power of language and communication. Subjects like algebra help train the logical mind. When you look at school subjects this way, they are much less useless than when we first assumed they were. As CornishAustin has rightly pointed out - Kids are incapable of knowing what they want to do in life - so you need to teach them as many things as possible. As they get older, they will find the things that like and want to do. However, they will not really know what they want to do unless they've tried a whole load of other things.
• Vietnam
19 Jul 08
I think what we have to learn now is the same with what u mention .We have to study a lot of subjects ,enough for us feel tired with them . As u said above ,we have to try all to find one field we want ,but if we have to try all ,the number of subjects we learn is not small .Instead of make education program shorter and fit with our needs, we have to "swim" in pool of subjects to find just one ,so it not solve our problem and spread out our program .Thank for response ,and hope to see ur opinions more in my topics
@Alex42692 (167)
• United States
11 Jul 08
There are going to be subjects in school you'll hardly ever use, but that other people will use regularly. Just like you will use some subjects more than other will. Schools not all about one type of person and it's hard to teach everything without going a little overboard.
• Vietnam
13 Jul 08
Nice answer . I will try to accept all the subject . But I will find another way to learn . Thank for response
@kittenmc (464)
• United States
18 Jul 08
I agree. That's the advantage of home schooling. You can pick and choose what you want to learn or teach. It's sorta like college, you can choose what interest you. As for me, I can understand why some science is important, but not all. I also can understand it nice to know about some history, but not all. Even in college I had to take a few classes I didn't really care for, but over all I was able to take what I really enjoyed and interested me. I teach my kids the basics. We do history, but to our interest. As far as science, I haven't been able to pick and much of what we learn, but it's not real high on our list. We mainly focus on math and English. IMO, these 2 are the most important, but I guess it depends on the person.