do we need to change what is being taught in high school?

With a job market that is moving more and more to individuals with college education, do we need to start changing what is being taught in highschool? Seems to me that those with just a high school education are being considered far less valuable all the time. So do we need to change what is considered "the basics" so that young people can be taught what is considered useful in the working world?

I think it's time a push is made for exactly that. After all, how many times have we done assigned work that we knew wouldn't be important in real world? I'm sure there is always some of this going on, but I think that it may need to start happening at a faster rate.

What do you think OT? Would it be worth it if a high school education meant a little bit more than a kid has the ability to stick with something for the long haul?

I think the quality of a HS education needs to be improved before implementing the types of changes you're talking about. If anything, more opportunities should be made available and emphasis placed on vocational schools for those that fall under that category. Some sort of dual program would probably be a good idea. Back in HS I actually got my RDA as a part of a "magnet school", and I know others who recieved their EMT, LVN, and so on.

However, courses that do have real-life applications (e.g., personal financing/budgeting) could be extremely beneifical.

Public HS needs a complete overhall in the US.

For starters they need to adopt the college work style (no busy work, more focused on big projects instead of daily assighnments)

Probable breaking up the classes into more focused half year semesters (instead of dragged out 1 year corses) would also likely help.

Pretty much everything outside of basic English and algebra is pointless. The whole point of high school is to 'train' the brain, and help you develop critical thinking skills. At least that's what I've noticed from my experience.Fightingfan

We need to change what's taught and how it's taught from kindergarten up. We need to be more effective in getting students engaged in the material, better able to have teachers cater to individual student needs, we need to introduce more subjects that will better prepare students for college, and we need to impose higher standards in most areas (like language) to bring our results up to acceptable levels. And no, we shouldn't just be teaching them things that are useful in the "real world." All that does is unduly limit their potential. A smart enough person can find or make a use for just about any intellectual pursuit in the real world, defining the real world narrowly limits the potential for what the real world could be for students.

[QUOTE="Fightingfan"]Pretty much everything outside of basic English and algebra is pointless. The whole point of high school is to 'train' the brain, and help you develop critical thinking skills. At least that's what I've noticed from my experience.Dark__Link

With a job market that is moving more and more to individuals with college education, do we need to start changing what is being taught in highschool? Seems to me that those with just a high school education are being considered far less valuable all the time. So do we need to change what is considered "the basics" so that young people can be taught what is considered useful in the working world?

I think it's time a push is made for exactly that. After all, how many times have we done assigned work that we knew wouldn't be important in real world? I'm sure there is always some of this going on, but I think that it may need to start happening at a faster rate.

What do you think OT? Would it be worth it if a high school education meant a little bit more than a kid has the ability to stick with something for the long haul?

Serraph105

with more and more specialized working fields out there and many people who actually go to college to learn how to do specialized jobs, is very difficult that anything you can teach in high school is enough for todays mnarket.

[QUOTE="Dark__Link"][QUOTE="Fightingfan"]Pretty much everything outside of basic English and algebra is pointless. The whole point of high school is to 'train' the brain, and help you develop critical thinking skills. At least that's what I've noticed from my experience.Fightingfan

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Short answer: Yes but nothing will come out of it.

With a job market that is moving more and more to individuals with college education, do we need to start changing what is being taught in highschool? Seems to me that those with just a high school education are being considered far less valuable all the time. So do we need to change what is considered "the basics" so that young people can be taught what is considered useful in the working world?

I think it's time a push is made for exactly that. After all, how many times have we done assigned work that we knew wouldn't be important in real world? I'm sure there is always some of this going on, but I think that it may need to start happening at a faster rate.

What do you think OT? Would it be worth it if a high school education meant a little bit more than a kid has the ability to stick with something for the long haul?

Serraph105

Finance and econ need to be taught to some degree. For fvcks sake 47% of this country doesn't know the answer to "which do you think is a safer more secure investment, a stock mutual fund or single company's stock".

With a job market that is moving more and more to individuals with college education, do we need to start changing what is being taught in highschool? Seems to me that those with just a high school education are being considered far less valuable all the time. So do we need to change what is considered "the basics" so that young people can be taught what is considered useful in the working world?

I think it's time a push is made for exactly that. After all, how many times have we done assigned work that we knew wouldn't be important in real world? I'm sure there is always some of this going on, but I think that it may need to start happening at a faster rate.

What do you think OT? Would it be worth it if a high school education meant a little bit more than a kid has the ability to stick with something for the long haul?

Serraph105

Our current education system is a joke.

Everything except for math, science, English, second languages and physical education should be removed. The vacant spots should be filled with financial management, business, investment, real estate, debt management, life skills or any other courses that are actually useful to become successful at life.

Edit: Preferably taught by people who are successful and wealthy.

High school education did does little to prepare students of the financial aspects that they must face in the little place known as the real world.

Here in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), there are technical high schools which specialize in fields that lead right in to apprenticeships for the trades. So, the choice is there for people. If you want job skills, there are school for that. If you want University prep, there are schools for that too. Depends on what you need.

Public HS needs a complete overhall in the US.

For starters they need to adopt the college work style (no busy work, more focused on big projects instead of daily assighnments)

Probable breaking up the classes into more focused half year semesters (instead of dragged out 1 year corses) would also likely help.

dercoo

We need to change what's taught and how it's taught from kindergarten up. We need to be more effective in getting students engaged in the material, better able to have teachers cater to individual student needs, we need to introduce more subjects that will better prepare students for college, and we need to impose higher standards in most areas (like language) to bring our results up to acceptable levels. And no, we shouldn't just be teaching them things that are useful in the "real world." All that does is unduly limit their potential. A smart enough person can find or make a use for just about any intellectual pursuit in the real world, defining the real world narrowly limits the potential for what the real world could be for students.

theone86

Education should embody something far greater than just preparing kids for the job market. So just teaching what is 'useful in the real world' (read: useful economically) would be too little. Higher education allows you to learn more specific subjects, whether it be in an academic career or in a course to learn a specific job.

We should go back to a classical style education with emphasis on philosophy and critical thinking. Trade skills are best picked up through participation in the actual trade (not that some exposure would be bad in a school enviroment) and factual learning works best when you have the ability to fit everything into a cohesive system of thought.

I would just advise lowering GED age requirements, for those who would rather opt out of the experience, albeit at a disadvantage.

With a job market that is moving more and more to individuals with college education, do we need to start changing what is being taught in highschool? Seems to me that those with just a high school education are being considered far less valuable all the time. So do we need to change what is considered "the basics" so that young people can be taught what is considered useful in the working world?

I think it's time a push is made for exactly that. After all, how many times have we done assigned work that we knew wouldn't be important in real world? I'm sure there is always some of this going on, but I think that it may need to start happening at a faster rate.

What do you think OT? Would it be worth it if a high school education meant a little bit more than a kid has the ability to stick with something for the long haul?

Serraph105

High school is the lesson. You are learning to be on time, follow directions, collaborate on projects, etc.

The problem is high school students do not have any foresight and are very ego centric and will not understand that.

EDIT: Also adults don't want to work with teens. So go to college and save your potential co-workers some grief.

Everything except for math, science, English, second languages and physical education should be removed. The vacant spots should be filled with financial management, business, investment, real estate, debt management, life skills or any other courses that are actually useful to become successful at life.junglist101

So you'd like to see a generation of investment bankers who couldn't locate Europe on a map, haven't heard of the Second World War (or anything later/earlier), and who are more-or-less artistically void?

Science, 7 hours a day, just science.

1 simple adjustment: no more summer breaks.comp_atkins

Everything that I learned in high school that I considered important, I relearned within the first year of college. High school is just busy work and time killing.stanleycup98

We should go back to a classical style education with emphasis on philosophy and critical thinking. Trade skills are best picked up through participation in the actual trade (not that some exposure would be bad in a school enviroment) and factual learning works best when you have the ability to fit everything into a cohesive system of thought.

GIJames248

[QUOTE="Serraph105"]

With a job market that is moving more and more to individuals with college education, do we need to start changing what is being taught in highschool? Seems to me that those with just a high school education are being considered far less valuable all the time. So do we need to change what is considered "the basics" so that young people can be taught what is considered useful in the working world?

I think it's time a push is made for exactly that. After all, how many times have we done assigned work that we knew wouldn't be important in real world? I'm sure there is always some of this going on, but I think that it may need to start happening at a faster rate.

What do you think OT? Would it be worth it if a high school education meant a little bit more than a kid has the ability to stick with something for the long haul?

MrGeezer

I actually think you bring up some great points, ultimately you have to be motivated, and innovative as an individual to be successful. There is no guaranteed path to take.

I personally think half of school is in place just to teach children how to take direction/develop critical thinking. The rest gives you a taste of subjects to see what youre interested in. Maybe Im biased, because my highschool was in the top highschools in USA.. but I think the actual courses offered are really good.

I personally think half of school is in place just to teach children how to take direction/develop critical thinking. The rest gives you a taste of subjects to see what youre interested in. Maybe Im biased, because my highschool was in the top highschools in USA.. but I think the actual courses offered are really good.

I actually think you bring up some great points, ultimately you have to be motivated, and innovative as an individual to be successful. There is no guaranteed path to take.TacticalDesire

Highschool is just baby sitting. I literally learned almost nothing from highschool. Actually algebra 2 was the only class i learned anything new in and i had to take that again in college anyway...It was quite literally a waste of 4 years of my life and didnt help me in any way. Im pretty sure i actually got more stupid from being surrounded by stupid people.

So bottom line do we need to change what is taught in highschool? No, i think we need to actually start teaching.

A bit more lectures on common social behaviour and the workings of the human mind would do many people a lot of good. Especially at that specific age where everyone tries to be cool by buying stupidly expensive clothes or by being attention whores.

I agree that classes that teach real world lessons should be implemented into the curriculum, but I don't think we should be getting rid of certain classes (most always math) just because some people don't think they apply to real life. LZ71

Couldn't agree more.

LJS9502_basic

agree, i actually think that in the UK the thing that needs to be changed the most is that the schools are gearing the kids up for college / uni rather than getting a job, far too many kids leave highschool with visions of grandour aiming for a degree in something like sports science which realistically has very little % chance of landing them a job

but thats because the success of a school is measured in terms of results and succesful university entries, presenting a schools success statistically any other way would very hard

So do we need to change what is considered "the basics" so that young people can be taught what is considered useful in the working world?

Serraph105

So, do you propose eleven years of how to operate phones, solitaire strategies, and Facebook/Farmville?

I thought my school was done well. You could do a thing where you learned different stuff based on what you chose. There was one for construction, and I know there was one where they taught you basic engineering stuff, like Inventor and whatnot.

One thing I think they should change is making all the kids buy graphing calculators. Really a waste of time, they would be better off learning matlab or something.

They need to add two years to high school, so people graduate when they're 20.juden41

[QUOTE="juden41"]They need to add two years to high school, so people graduate when they're 20.LZ71

I agree with a lot of others that there should be more "real life" classes about finances, etc. and also as long as they keep the option of having lots of AP classes available, then I don't see much to change besides those.