Ask HN: What subjects should be removed/replaced in school? With what?

19 points

9 years ago

Do you remember the order of the planets from the sun? You were surely taught it right? Why'd you forget? Because you don't have a spaceship and will never miss your left turn at Mars. Hackernewsians probably break this example. The things they’ve forgotten are far more exciting. Why not teach things things with more utility instead? You still get all the side benefits of learning. For instance, how to be a good friend, how to give a good apology, how not to get scammed, how to invest in your future. Heck, if you're going to force kids to be bad versions of wikipedia, and remember stupid lists of trivial knowledge, like the capitals of states, perhaps teach them mnemonic technique first.

Software is eating the world, teach it. Why/How to not max out your credit cards, so very many useful things are taught far too late or never at all. The concept that the parents are supposed to be the source of some of this information relies on parents being good at parenting…

Anyone can justify any education about anything. Which is why progress in this field is so slow. No one can actually win an argument with anyone about any taking any topic they care about off a curriculum, because every topic is passionate and useful to someone. So in a world where everything is super important to someone, you have to use a more advanced system of comparison. Like eliciting someone’s values on a psychological evaluation.

Not exactly, but something like, would you rather lose your index finger or your big toe? Ok, would you rather lose your index finger or 3 toes? Ok, how about one eye or one hand. If you ask enough of these rather odd questions, you can actually result in a value in dollars per a body part. Like this: https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/workers-compensation-benefits-by-limb

It is the tragedy of the commons that no educator wants to pay the price of seeing their curriculum reduced or replaced with something better. For them better doesn’t exist.

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