how is the US education system and what new subjects do you think need to be involved in it?

26 comments

1. Financial literacy class should be mandatory.

2. It would be really nice to see more focus on critical thinking and rational skepticism. We could use a lot of both at the moment.

3. I would increase the rigor of science/math courses and get kids reading actual scientific literature in High School. Teach them how to properly assess a source. What to look for in Methodist.

   A big part of science and life in general (hopefully…) is critical thinking and you just don’t get that from basic HS-level education. Honestly you don’t get much if anything, my base of knowledge going into my Bio degree in undergrad was like “uh, the mitosis is the powerhouse of the cell?”.

   Also we just need more critical thinking curriculum in general, starting in elementary school. Probably not scientific literature for them but you know, like puzzles and analyzing book passages and shit.

   My parents used to do logic games with me for fun when I was a kid and I think it had a positive effect because I did really well on my MCAT CARS section and the practice LSAT lol

4. I think it’d be nice to facilitate teaching children the subjects the accel at and not focus as much on the topics they struggle with.

   It may seem counter intuitive, but if a child has a passion for a particular subject, if properly supported and nurtured, they can become a truly talented individual in that field of study. Do we really give a shit if a prodigious mathematician has to use google spell-checker? Do we care if an unrivaled novelist can’t do trigonometry? Do we care if a legendary physicist can’t run a 10 minute mile?

   The education system should stop focusing on churning out average people, and should start facilitating children’s passions.

5. Overall, just restructure it to be focused on critical thinking, creativity, and reasoning. Our system does fine at teaching objective facts, but it doesn’t teach people at all how to apply knowledge, or develop real-life skills.

6. Classes on home economics, basic accounting, financial literacy, and civics would reap enormous benefits.

7. I think we need less focus on subject matter and its application and a return to the focus of liberal education: the formation of the mind. With the plethora of resources available in the modern day, a person with a nimble and curious mind will far exceed a person who had their curiosity crushed by relentless practicality from a young age.

8. I don’t see much change happening until we ditch a boatload of the standardized tests. You won’t get students to think critically until we stop having to teach them a test so the school district can continue to get funding.

9. The quality of the system varies from state to state and district to district. Massachusetts is world class.

   I believe high school math needs to make room for statistics (and maybe survey methods), even at the expense of calculus. Even a math major like me never used calculus in real life, but understanding statistics is something literally everyone needs. Otherwise there’s no way to interpret things like understanding case rates and such.

   To put it in more concrete terms, anyone with a high school diploma should instinctively know that when they hear “N people had a heart condition after getting a vaccine” that they need to know the the percentage of people to whom that happened and, ideally, that they should ask what the comparable numbers are for people who didn’t get the vaccine.

10. Which education system? There are thousands of them.

    In general, critical thinking, analysis, complex reasoning. We’ve made great strides in doing these things for AI but those skills seem to be fading in the general population.

    Maybe have fewer activists disguised as sociology professors while we’re at it.

11. Personally, I think we should pretty much do the opposite of what most people are suggesting in this sub.

    A K-12 education isn’t intended to teach students to do everything they’ll need to do in life. It’s to teach them enough so they can figure things out on their own. I don’t really see the benefit in taking classroom time away from math, science, English composition, etc. to teach students to do the exact same thing there are a million YouTube tutorials for. Doing your taxes is pretty easy when you know how to read and do math well enough to follow basic directions and do simple arithmetic – even though you can use a calculator.

    I’m far less concerned with whether my children are creative then whether they can read, write, add, and subtract.

12. Every school district in the country has a different curriculum. Even with Common Core standards, it varies dramatically across the country, especially as you get into middle and high school.

    I do wish there was more home economics. My middle school had it as a required class in 7th grade (12 years old) but it was cut a few years ago.

13. Less trivia, more practicality. I know people in their 20s that have no idea how basics of credit cards, interest, mortgages, taxes, and all sorts of other basic things function. Because they never learned it.

14. I wouldn’t say “need”, but I’d support making philosophy more widely available as a high school elective.

15. One thing I’ve noticed is that most teachers I’ve met weren’t happy with how their particular subject is taught- Math teachers who think math could be taught in a more coherent way, English teachers who want to spend more time per unit, gym teachers who wanted to do different stuff, History teachers who want to teach further than “is it on the exam”, etc.

    I really wish they could get what they wanted.

16. There isn’t a US education system. It’s all controlled by the states and counties.

17. Mandatory math concepts should stop after Algebra 1 (sophomore year where I went to HS) and become logic for junior year and finance (household budgets, savings, investment) senior year.

18. HighSchool teaches a lot of universal bullshit like having to take an art class for a year or 4 years of English or a second language for 2 years. English class is bullshit. I don’t need to know the hidden messing of Shakespeare. Teach me stuff like essay writing, research, resume writing. Also 4 years is too long. Make it 2 of 2.5. Art and a second language are unnecessary and shouldn’t be mandatory. PE should be mandatory every year. I would also add that there should be college level classes available for every school.

19. How the government works. People still cant grasp what the three branches do and how they work.

20. There is no US education system

21. computer programming

22. Civics. People need to understand how the various levels of government work and how they relate to and interact with each other.

    Some specifics:

    * How the two houses of Congress are elected and how they function (role of the filibuster, etc.)
    * A good understanding of *Marbury v. Madison*
    * How seats in the state legislatures are apportioned
    * Why the census and redistricting are important
    * What your county does; almost no one knows this, relatively speaking
    * What services the city provides and how they’re paid for (e.g. property and sales taxes)

    Ideally there would be a practical aspect to this, like following a bill through the state legislative process and lobbying for/against it.

23. I went to a private Catholic school my whole life so I can’t really answer but based on how dumb most people I encounter are, I’d say civics, home economics and history need to be taught better

24. Ask any non-U.S. citizen and they would say Geography.

25. We had a mandatory finance class in high school which taught us how getting a job and interviews work. Doing taxes and budgeting. It was boring, but necessary. More schools need this.

26. The US education system is a strange place. It simultaneously produces the most educated, capable, creative, and driven people in the world, while also some of the most ignorant, backward, and foolish.

    I don’t think the problem is the lack of subjects. I think the main issue is just how we teach kids. People learn best when they are happy and entertained, and that’s especially true for kids and teenagers. Trying to jam as much information into their heads as quickly as possible never does anything good. The best teachers I had always took their time and kept students engaged.

    It’s also important to teach kids how to sit down, focus, and do hard work, but there needs to be a balance.