What is not taught at school?
Like every parent, going to school with your child is both happiness and trouble. On the one hand, the child needs to be “prepared” for school - buy a backpack, a suit, shoes, notebooks, pens and many other supplies. Parents are happy that the child will finally take the first steps towards his future, towards his career and happiness. After all, it is school that provides the minimum basic knowledge that a child needs.
The school teaches music, mathematics, literature and much more. But what does this give a child in life? Of course, a diligent student will know the moral of Krylov's fables, will be able to add and multiply, and will gain knowledge of musical notation. But will it be useful to him in life?
The sad truth is that 95% of all educational material that is given to a child during the learning process is completely unapplicable in life. Moreover, having studied this material, in adult life all knowledge will be forgotten, because it will lose relevance. Indeed, why does a first-class mechanic need to know musical notation? And it is absolutely not necessary for a middle manager to read The Master and Margarita.
Real knowledge that will be useful to a person regardless of his life path is not taught in our schools. Many teachers are absolutely indifferent to what the child will know and what not. The main thing for them is to report the required amount of material, receive their modest salary, and then continue to “spread” children with outright information garbage.
Many respected people around the world have repeatedly emphasized in their writings the lack of importance of secondary education for achieving success in life. For example, the famous investor and entrepreneur Robert T. Kiyosaki wrote his bestseller, which sold millions of copies around the world. This bestseller was called “If you want to be rich and happy, don’t go to school.”
Here are just some quotes from the book:
1. Traditional education is based on rewarding students who are recognized as capable of systematically “weeding”, i.e. "stupid" students. It is not a system aimed at educating everyone who comes into it. It is aimed at selecting the “most capable” and training them. That's why there are tests, grades, gifted programs, handicapped programs, and labels. It is a system of classification, discrimination and separation.
2. We must rediscover all truths for ourselves, and not simply accept their imposition from the outside.
3. Children are interested in grades, not knowledge. Our education system teaches that being right is more important than true knowledge. She rewards correct answers and punishes mistakes.
4. The only reason why I am happy in my life and never worry about money is because I have learned to lose. This is why I was able to achieve success in life.
Robert knows what he's talking about. If this were said by a person who has achieved nothing in life, one would think that the person is delusional. However, Robert is not the only successful person who argued that secondary education spoils children more than it benefits them.
Studying in a modern high school, a child learns to be a robot, to look at the world through the eyes of a teacher and not form his own opinion. After graduating from school, a teenager faces an important question - choosing a future profession. And here the most interesting thing begins - when choosing a specialty at the university, the child begins to get lost and doubt. The reason for these doubts is that the child does not know his place in life, does not know his preferences. But shouldn't school teach this? Naturally, I should. In fact, nothing like this happens. And all the troubles don’t end there.
When a child at the university begins to be asked about an important figure or event that goes beyond the scope of the school curriculum, he remains silent. This reminds me of a robot to tears - if the robot found the answer in the database, it gave it out, but if it didn’t find it, it’s not far from the transistors burning out. And the school curriculum in our schools, frankly speaking, leaves much to be desired.
So what doesn't school teach?
1. The ability to find mutual understanding with others. At school they teach algorithms, but not a single algorithm is capable of fully describing human behavior and perception. As a result, many school graduates are not able to communicate with other people and find mutual understanding with them. Yes, some teachers teach children: “Treat other people the way you would like to be treated!” Just bravo! Over the years of teaching practice, Dale Carnegie’s book was read.
Everything in this phrase is true, but in practice such an attitude towards people does not produce results. The reason is that this is not the only way to build relationships with others. You should listen carefully to the person, respect his interests, not discuss the person, accept him as he is, be sincere and honest, and always keep his word. And so on, and so on... The school should teach the child all this. Teaches? The question is rhetorical.
2. To ask questions. Every child is born inquisitive. His mom and dad don’t have time to count the number of questions they were asked: “How?”, “Why?” and why?". But, having gone to school, the child suddenly loses the desire to ask questions. Why is this happening? The fact is that the child knows that if I ask a question, either a rude refusal or a “f” awaits me. Thus, the child prefers to remain silent.
How does this manifest itself in adult life? Let’s say that at an enterprise where a former high school student works, they conduct safety training. At the end, the instructor asks the question: “Does everyone understand everything?” The answer is silence. Well, silence is a sign of consent. And so, due to the fault of the employee, an accident occurs. He wanted to ask a question, because not everything was clear, however, “thanks” to the school, the question was never asked.
Instead of punishing students for asking questions, teachers should encourage them.
3. Make decisions and take full responsibility for them. This perhaps most important quality is blatantly forgotten by the school. As a result, in adult life a person misses a thousand wonderful opportunities, simply by being afraid to take responsibility at the right time and make the right decision. Another aspect of the lack of this quality is that a person makes a decision that turns out to be wrong and leads to losses for the company. What does a person do next - admit his mistake and try to correct it? No matter how it is. He is trying to find the last one to shift the blame onto him. At school this act may go unpunished, but in adult life such behavior is severely punished. Either the person who was framed will take revenge on the offender, or fate will punish him, and one day they will do the same to him.
4. Hard work. In life, every person should love what he does - this is the only way success can be achieved. He shouldn’t think: “Well, wow, we need to do this again...”, but do his job with pleasure. Work ennobles a person.
What does the school think about this? But nothing - no one cares what the child likes and what he doesn’t. There is a general education program, and it must be followed. Whether you like chemistry or not, whether you understand it or not, if you don’t do your homework, you’ll get a “failure.” When a child tries to master a subject but fails, he needs the help of a teacher. However, he does not receive this help. As a result, after another unsatisfactory assessment, the student’s self-esteem suffers - there is no time for hard work.
The same is true for excellent students - you have done your homework, and you know that you will get an “A”. Nothing else matters. Why learn anything new, why strive for something? This will not be noticed or encouraged by the teacher in any way.
5. The ability to defend one’s position and what is right. From the very first grades, children are taught that the teacher is always right. And if the teacher is wrong, look above. As a result, the teacher may speak outright heresy, and the student may know about it, but he will remain silent. How come?? Watching the teacher? Yes, in front of you is Seneca in a skirt! By the way, who Seneca is is not taught in school.
Every person must be able to defend his rightness if something very important to him is at stake. Otherwise, the person turns from a leader into a follower. It will be possible to instill in him any opinion that does not resonate with his opinion. In the end, at work they will push all the responsibilities onto him, since he is the quietest and never objects.
6. Ability to be flexible. Here school education is a complete failure. We can start with the fact that the school curriculum itself in our countries is not flexible - all over the world we need high technology and scientific discoveries, but in our schools they prefer to teach a history lesson instead.
Second. Children are not taught to be flexible and adapt to a changing environment. If 30 years ago the fate of those who graduated from school was predetermined - they knew who and where they would work, today many opportunities are open to a person. But life is very changeable, and the profession that was popular a year ago may be unclaimed in a week. A person must be able to change his priorities, learn something new, and comprehend what has not been comprehended before. But he doesn't.
To the question “Why did you choose a career as a translator?” many answer “Well, I don’t know... it’s probably prestigious...”. Ideally, schools should teach children to understand what skills are important and what can be useful in the future. But she doesn't. It's a pity.
7. To be independent. Not a single school subject teaches a child that one needs to be independent, that only freedom can give real satisfaction. As a result, after graduating from school, a person becomes dependent on everyone - on parents, on boss, on friends, etc.
8. Ability to resolve conflicts. For the first time, many people learn about this quality in the subject “Conflict Studies” at the university. And even then only those who teach this subject. The ability to resolve conflicts is an excellent ability that distinguishes a truly adult and responsible person from a child. If you do not know how to resolve conflicts, you are constantly in stressful situations and talk to no one - you have either already quarreled with everyone or are avoiding this sad prospect.
You can’t avoid communicating with people just because you don’t know how to resolve conflicts. This is not taught in textbooks - the ability to resolve conflict situations is developed in practice, and therefore such a subject should be introduced in every school, but... alas, it does not exist and is not expected in the near future.
9. The ability to bring something started to completion. It’s not enough to start a business; what’s more important is to bring what you started to its logical conclusion. Many people don't know how to do this - they weren't taught this at school. This is why they have acquired a reputation as irresponsible people who cannot be relied upon.
10. Ability to cope with difficulties, stress and depression. Many children who have completed their schooling are susceptible to depression - they do not know which path to choose, which leads to a decline in mood and an unwillingness to change anything in their lives. Depression can often lead to addiction to alcohol and even suicide. But all this would not have happened if the school had taught children to cope with any difficult situation and not give up at the first failure. In addition, depression and stress can also be managed, but if anywhere you can learn this, it’s obviously not at a school desk.
Despite the fact that the list of skills that are not taught in school is far from complete, we will dwell on this. After all, it is already clear that important life knowledge and skills cannot be obtained at school.
The question arises - where to get this knowledge? Naturally, the main role in this is given to parents. After all, it is unlikely that a child will find an advertisement in the newspaper about training courses and attend them.
It is parents who, from an early age, should teach their child to take responsibility for their words and actions, develop teamwork skills, teach the child to cope with troubles with their head held high, develop critical thinking in the child, teach him to stand up for himself, and much more. However, most parents take their child to school and believe that they will teach him everything there. They have their own work - they devote all their time and attention to it.
Stop, you can't do this! Understand that without your active participation, the school will turn your child into a robot who can only do monotonous work. If you wish your child happiness, take an active part in his development, and he will repay you with his successes.
Guys, we put our soul into the site. Thank you for that
that you are discovering this beauty. Thanks for the inspiration and goosebumps.
Join us on Facebook And In contact with
Probably every student has asked himself at least once why he needs school. Unfortunately, every year it becomes more and more difficult to answer this question: programs become outdated and desperately fail to keep up with the needs of a rapidly changing world. We can hardly expect that school education will suddenly become more applicable to life, but we can at least dream.
website compiled a list of items that would definitely be useful to modern students.
1. Calligraphy
If there's one thing students will need in the future, it's the ability to think creatively. You should not think that creative thinking is required only by humanists; it is useful for a representative of any profession - from a carpenter to a nuclear physicist. Unfortunately, most of the school teaches how to act according to a template, but it would be great to explain to children how to generate ideas and create their own projects.
4. Ecophilosophy
As a rule, there are simply no environmental lessons in schools, or they are purely formal in nature and come down to stating facts or banal intimidation. It would be great to talk to students on a deeper level. For example, explain what a consumer society is and how such a lifestyle is dangerous for people and the planet. And, of course, talk about what each of us can do right now and in the future.
5. Innovative technologies and basics of robotics
Most likely, the percentage of schoolchildren who want to connect their profession with innovative technologies will only grow every year. So why not finally start teaching this subject at the appropriate level?
Within the framework of this subject, it would be possible to introduce a course teaching how to work with information. Probably, each of us has seen sad examples when the Internet, with its limitless possibilities, became not a helper, but a time killer. And in the worst case, a real murderer. It is within the power of adults to ensure that the child does not get lost in social networks and the huge flow of information. But first you need to understand that this is truly a global and serious problem that needs to be solved.
6. Psychology
Surprising fact: to get a driver's license, you need to take courses and pass a serious exam, but to become a parent, you don't need anything at all. A course in developmental and personality psychology can help schoolchildren not only understand themselves and improve relationships with the world, but also gently prepare for communication with their future child.
7. Fundamentals of Medicine
Few schoolchildren will become doctors in the future, but the vast majority will become parents. Life can depend on the ability to quickly identify the symptoms of meningitis or treat an open wound, which cannot be said about the ability to distinguish a lieutenant from a major by shoulder straps. It’s strange, but most health-related issues are not discussed at all in school, except in life safety classes. And if these lessons have brought you any benefit, you are lucky, because often they are completely formal and become a waste of time. But it would be so great to wean children from treating ARVI with antibiotics and finally explain how important it is to protect themselves. By the way, the basics of medicine are taught in many European and Asian schools, but usually within the framework of natural science.
You can often hear about the workload of our secondary education, saying that many unnecessary items need to be removed, etc. Here is my version:
Subjects taught at school:
Russian language
Mathematics
Geometry
Algebra
Foreign language
Story
Physics
Chemistry
Social science
Natural history
Biology
Computer science
Geography
Astronomy
Natural science
Drawing
Physical training
Work
Personally, I was almost the last C student (well, I didn’t like answering and going to the board), but the following were useful to me:
Russian language, Mathematics, Geometry (I often calculate areas and volumes), Physics (one might say even more than the Russian language), English language, Computer Science (but I knew it better than the teachers), Drawing...
I also sometimes read history and astronomy for fun, although we didn’t have astronomy at school, and I was at school 9 years ago...
Yes, I didn’t like literature, but I don’t roll my eyes when they talk to me about Romeo and Juliet, I didn’t like biology, but again I’m not surprised when they talk about cross-pollination of flowers... I know the formula of water and I know where Srilanka is! So education was useful?
But it's me! For the most part, we are surrounded by people who are very far from science and such percent are 80-90, for example Economists
Explain why an economist needs to learn something other than mathematics and the Russian language?? ? Now it is useless to ask them about the area of a trapezoid, or the area of a circle, it is useless to ask them about the acceleration of a free body during a fall or the specific heat of water, I am generally silent about sine, cosine and tangent... Why were they taught then?
And what is your opinion on education in Russia?
Schoolchildren, please do not answer, so as not to look too stupid... and without you there are enough fools here...
She graduated from school in 1956. You have to study all your life. I believe that at school all subjects are needed to varying degrees. My advice to today's youth: you need to learn to study in order to keep up with life.
You know, you asked not to write to schoolchildren, but I will write anyway. For example, I already needed many items (I’m working). I never expected that such hated biology would be needed, but this time it came in handy. In my opinion, it’s stupid to ask; what items you will need in life depends primarily on what field of activity you decide to work in. Moreover, we never know what surprises life will bring us... And education in Russia is not particularly good (
I personally don’t need chemistry, biology, astronomy in life at all, but if they are not in the school curriculum, then how will a future chemist, biologist or astronomer learn about their purpose in life?
Therefore, I believe that all these subjects should be for informational purposes first of all, but the grading system is clearly imperfect, because firstly, the 12-point system is nonsense (as one of my teachers said, “a five-point system is too much for me”), secondly, why traumatize a child with bad marks in biology if he is clearly drawn to physics or computer science and pistils and stamens are somehow uninteresting to him?
I believe that subjects such as the native language and mathematics are mandatory, and more specialized subjects should be studied in a more dynamic way, depending on the child’s predisposition to them. In this regard, probably the American education system, which our teachers spit on from a high hill, is significantly superior to the modern education of the Slavic countries.
Almost everything was useful to one degree or another.
And not at all because an economist will die without biology. In practice, perhaps not.
Studying school subjects helped me learn... study. To navigate the flow of a wide variety of information and to extract from it what is really needed, practical, necessary.
We were taught a little bit of everything. Yes, I’m not a biologist, but I understand “can a Rh-positive man with blood group 1 and a Rh-negative woman with blood group 4 have children with the second group?” and I can answer the question of whether the dream of a dark-eyed and dark-haired man to have blue-eyed daughter. I remember the formula of water (by the way, many of us also remember the formula of alcohol, right?) and read with interest about the latest research into the genome, outer space, evolution (In connection with which I am amused when I hear about the “terrible parade of planets that will cause a three-month darkness in which all but three signs of the zodiac will perish"). I love Shakespeare and Dumas (which is why the plots of many, many modern films cause hysterical laughter, especially American ones). I still (it’s scary to think) remember who Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky were, and I don’t view the Second World War as “a war between the Nazis and the Communists, which the United States won with the help of Lend-Lease.” I remember where the Urals are and what time zones are.
We have been crammed with so much information that I can still change my field of activity almost painlessly. Don't know? - I’ll learn, after the training we went through at school and university - it’s not scary. We were also taught to think and systematize, drawing conclusions on our own. You won’t believe it, but everyone here knew how to analyze literary works, even those who were considered staunch C students (thanks to our literature teacher!) and loved... geometry and trigonometry (for the clarity of formulas and the beauty of conclusions). I don’t remember the formulas - but we were taught what they mean, so if necessary, I’ll just derive them myself.
All this taught me to absorb information, remember important things, and treat any statement critically.
Modern education is gradually sliding towards mindless memorization, towards memorizing small details. This is why the study of many subjects begins to lose meaning (Well, why remember the name of Vronsky’s horse, the color of the eyes of Budyonny’s horse, or the number of teeth a hedgehog has?!). This state-of-the-art education focuses on narrow specialization from an early age. Therefore, lovely girls who thought that they were not interested in mathematics and biology, since they would be actresses and strippers (or simply get married), do not understand what the mysterious phrase “10% per annum” means and how much 30% of 100 rubles is, not able to calculate “how many months is 18 weeks”, sincerely afraid of the terrible words “Rh factor” and “vaccine”... And Lenin - he was very poor and worked part-time washing cars at crossroads!
Why go far? We have businessmen who sincerely believe that you only need to know the Russian language (to sign a contract and put a signature on a check) and mathematics (to be able to add and subtract) - the rest is completely unimportant.
I don’t have a high opinion of modern education in general. It no longer teaches you to think
That's it, the problem is that we are not taught to think. We are taught to cram by rote, rather than understand the meaning and draw conclusions ourselves. You need to think critically. Only then will there be new Newtons and Einsteins. And in general, all the items were useful to me, although only 10 percent of the total information. I am studying to be an economist. Everything will be useful there. You just don't know the depth of the profession. Economics touches all facets of science...
At school I was a chronic C student, at the institute (medical) I received an increased scholarship for my grades. In subsequent work, biology, and mathematics and English, which were so disliked at school, came in handy.
The following things have been useful to me in life: -Russian language and literature, chemistry, history, geometry and arithmetic, geography. And almost all school subjects are necessary for life. At any stage of life, something will come in handy. Even singing.
And what else to change in school subjects - that’s probably the same, right?
Definitely remove the drawing. Not everyone will be an artist, and this requires talent. And at school, it’s unlikely that anyone will draw a masterpiece of art; at best, they’ll end up with caricatures for our “Pepper” or your “Crocodile”.
Choreography - do you really have such a subject? Remove immediately! What, dancing is so important in life?
Are they really studying religion at school (I heard something like that, maybe it’s not true)? But at school there can be people of different faiths. Teach Muslims Christianity or Christians Islam - well, you know... So don’t.
Make physical education an elective (that is, do not give grades). Now, if someone can’t run fast or do more than one pull-up, is that why they can’t be an excellent student?
Singing (or music - what do you call it?) is also an elective. After all, not everyone has a beautiful voice, not everyone can sing beautifully. And if a person does not have an ear for music and cannot distinguish notes by ear, why, again, should he not be an excellent student?
And why is there a clear distinction at work: carpentry and plumbing for boys, sewing and cooking for girls? Sometimes it's worth combining. Well, girls don’t have to work with an ax or a sledgehammer, but sawing or soldering something is possible, just like boys can cook food.
Literature should be shortened. No mind-numbingly boring novels. No extracurricular reading. And why do they give assignments in literature during the holidays, and not, for example, in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography? And another question: why in libraries approximately 90% of books are all kinds of fiction? Popular science literature, all sorts of reference books, interesting magazines - more of that! And instead of boring novels - all sorts of adventures, fantasy, and humorous works. At least some jokes! And what? And no essays either. Well, they will write something in their own words - and who will be interested in reading it? They’re unlikely to write about Pushkin anyway, so why waste the paper?
The story should also be shortened. Study only truly important events. Although yes, it wouldn’t hurt to know not only events, but also the culture of ancient and not-so-ancient times. But there is no need to cram dates.
Well, you can’t do without mathematics, that’s for sure. First, they study everything together, then algebra and geometry are studied as separate subjects. Is it necessary? Probably, not. And logarithms, integrals, differentials, all sorts of operations with trigonometric functions can be studied not so extensively. But original methods of calculation and problem solving (there are such things) are worth studying.
Geography, on the contrary, should be expanded. All countries and their capitals - every normal person should know this, not just me. And physical geography too (where are some mountains, what rivers...). But economic geography can be shortened; it is not very interesting.
Biology should also be expanded, because not all classes of animals and plants are studied at school. Dedicating at least 1 lesson to some little-known class is good.
Astronomy must be expanded. Well, what do they study in astronomy? The solar system, some constellations, classes of stars (and even then not all). But recently so many discoveries have been made in astronomy! Even planets around other stars have been discovered, but this is not even mentioned in the school curriculum.
Study a foreign language more deeply. Constructing sentences, translating simple texts - yes, they study this in school. But to start the simplest conversation - point and click...
Computer science is related to computers, right? I didn’t study this subject at school, but I learned to use a computer on my own (well, yes, I bought myself books on computers). And it was very useful, even at work I deal with a computer. I think so, we need to teach how to use a computer, different programs, even play different games (what?). But it’s not very detailed to study programming, it’s such a tedious job! This is studied in special educational institutions.
Fundamentals of technology are also very important. Perhaps such an item already exists. It is important to know all sorts of mechanisms, simple electrical circuits, transport, and energy.
The basics of survival are something that will be very useful in life. It is important to know how to survive in a difficult economic situation (without work, in poverty), in difficult natural conditions, in a natural disaster, in a natural or man-made disaster, in an accident, how to find food in nature, how to distinguish edible mushrooms and plants from poisonous ones, how to save, how to provide medical care.
Yes, and no exams (or whatever they are now instead of exams). And the final grades are displayed as the arithmetic average of the grades received (unless some additional questions are possible if the student wants a higher grade). And admission to special secondary and higher educational institutions without entrance exams, but after an interview. Well, to find out what talents a person has, whether he is really interested in this specialty, whether he really wants to devote himself to this great or not so great matter. What if a person got into the wrong place (even if he passed the entrance exams well)? What if he has talent as an actor, but he went to study to become an accountant?
I was once a schoolgirl, then I became a teacher. I did equally well in all or almost all subjects. But how many of them have been useful to me in life? Looking back, I can now say quite clearly: which subjects turned out to be useful to me, and which ones - not so much. Some of them, if I had my way, I would leave and even expand, while others I would significantly reduce or even remove from the school curriculum.
Exact sciences
I have just returned from a forum where young mothers are arguing whether exact sciences are necessary for everyone. As for the “university”, let the associate professors and professors, advisers and experts of the Ministry of Education decide. I can only answer for my own experience: the exact sciences HAVE BEEN USEFUL to me.
No, I did not calculate the height of my own house using trigonometric formulas, and the other formulas were of little use to me in their pure form. But exact sciences taught me:
- count and calculate;
- think analytically and logically;
- Having a pair of known values, determine the unknown ones;
- understand the initial laws of the universe.
Before my first and only loan, I was very worried that I would not be able to pay my fees on time. Both daughters studied at the university, one on a paid basis, the other on a free basis. All the money went whistling into this abyss, there was little left until payday. Naturally, I wanted to know exactly what my dues would be and what penalties would apply to those who were late. I received the contract, but asked to take it home, which incredibly surprised the bank employee.
Having calculated well on the calculator, adding up the costs for electricity and heating, plus the minimum costs for food and unexpected expenses for medicines and tights, I refused that loan and took it elsewhere. And even this one, more loyal, I could barely pull through. Thanks to my class teacher, mathematics and algebra teacher - she taught me to count.
It's the same with physics. Thanks to our old physicist, the whole class learned how to connect electrical circuits and repair educational sockets and switches. Low bow to you, Andrey Georgievich.
And thank you for teaching us how to distinguish the electrical conductivity of objects and I know exactly what can be shocked by current and what cannot, and how to deal with static electricity.
But about astronomy, about Kepler’s laws, as well as Newton’s laws, I only know that there seem to be only two of them, and they all relate to mass and energy. That's all I took away from the school course. We learned constellations later together with our daughters from interesting children's magazines “The World Around You”.
Chemistry turned out to be, despite all its attractiveness, not such an applied science. Well, I know that NaCl is salt and H2O is water. But in the selection of household chemicals, chemical formulas are now used that I have no idea about: whether they are harmful compounds or neutral ones.
Natural science
Botany, zoology and anatomy, as well as geography - I classified all this as natural sciences. I never had a passion for them, but, oddly enough, they came in handy. My dear granny taught us floriculture, and I learned how to destroy pests without killing the flowers and houseplants themselves. I learned how to fertilize and correctly pinch shoots to achieve fullness.
I know who pollinates whom in the plant world, and how fertilization generally occurs, including in humans. Mendel’s laws of heredity are, in principle, an interesting thing, but I’m unlikely to be able to figure out whose nose my offspring will inherit: maybe mine, or maybe my second cousin’s, based on a strange combination of genes.
The animal world is quite interesting and diverse, but zoology was useful to me only in keeping my pets, and even then, I dug through a lot of literature. I think that there is no point in studying zoology for a whole year; they provide extensive but superficial knowledge. It would be better to give short but useful ones - about the diseases of domestic animals or about their maintenance/upbringing.
Geography was presented one-sidedly. I knew the map of Russia well, but even the geography of the Union republics was very bad, not to mention the rest of the world. Well, how many of you can tell offhand where Argentina is located - in North or South America? What about the Dominican Republic?
Humanities
The humanities, especially languages, have been very useful to me in my life. They, and also literature, feed me to this day. Maria Mikhailovna was an honored teacher of Russian language and literature. She forced our immature minds to think, taught our clumsy tongue to find suitable words to convey our emotions to listeners and readers.
But here's the bad thing: the volume of books to read was and remains too large. I think I was the only one in the class who read all four volumes of War and Peace. So we had meaningful dialogues with the teacher, while the rest quietly dozed off. I remember with a shudder how I waded through the long French dialogues, so beloved by Lev Nikolaevich, with footnotes, asterisks and translator’s explanations. Who can master this at 15 years old? Audiobooks are not the answer. Auditory perception is a rare form of perception. Most people fall asleep while reading, isn't it? The school literature curriculum is long overdue for revision, cleaning and reduction.
Sports and culture
I wrote about my relationship with sports at school in. I wasn't hopelessly unathletic, and I proved it by earning the title of outdoor instructor. But I did not fit into the school framework: the goat, rope, log and other projectiles became my personal enemies. I think that swimming and self-defense should be taught at school, and there should be rope courses and other devices for active pastime in the yard. There children can climb, hang and develop their normal reflexes.
I also included CVP (initial military training) in this category of sports. Hmm, who would have thought that I would need it? But it was useful!
I know how, for example, to hide behind a tree stump during a nuclear explosion. Hmmm, we had such posters hanging in our cabin: actions when the enemy uses weapons of mass destruction. I remember being struck by how important it was to wash off radioactive dust. Why didn’t anyone think about this when, in 1987, strawberries from Zhitomir were sold everywhere, where the wind carried a dusty cloud... And jokes aside, I knew how to disassemble an AKM, march and do exercises on the parade ground no worse than the boys. I served in the army, and my school skills were very useful.
Regarding culture, not everything is so simple. Remember singing lessons? Why singing and not music? No one sang, everyone was fooling around, and our teacher alone bleated his thin barite to his own accompaniment.
But then, already as a teacher, I went to the music lesson to visit my class and make a couple of announcements. I went in and stayed there: they were listening to classics! The children discussed, argued and listened again to certain points. I don’t know if this was in the program, however, I am convinced: you need to learn to listen to music, and different ones at that. It may be optional, but at least give an idea of real music.
Drawing is different from drawing. I myself taught fine arts in a rural school part-time. After short courses, we, young teachers of other specialties, were taught to draw and teach drawing so that everyone could draw a person, a bird or a tree. It turns out there are special tricks that are very effective. They are now actively presented as know-how.
I also include home economics in this category of culture. We were taught to make patterns, sew, embroider and darn holes. Oh, how my knowledge helped me! I regretted that I didn’t know how to sew shoes - I sewed everything else, from dresses to tracksuits, myself. I embroidered emblems, sewed in zippers, everything was like “branded”. Remember “Chinese dresses”? I also sewed them, not only for my daughters, but also for the neighbor girls. I can’t count how many socks and tights I’ve darned.
We were also taught how to cook and set the table. Thanks to Nina Fedorovna for this. But, alas, no one taught us table manners. I acutely regretted this in a Greek restaurant when, due to my clumsy attempt to use a knife and fork, an olive flew straight onto the next table. You can't teach good manners overnight.
What I was clearly missing
After graduating from school, I missed a lot. Nobody taught me first aid. I wouldn’t mind taking driving lessons, a course in minor auto and household appliance repairs, or carpentry skills. Let our girls' home economics and boys' labor lessons alternate! Then they would learn to cook, and we would learn how to repair small things and drive a car. Let us be given a driver's license along with a certificate.
I lacked basic legal knowledge, for example, in the field of consumption or labor protection. I also see today that I had no idea about pedagogy and child physiology. We all deal with younger children: brothers, sisters and nephews. How to handle them correctly? How do you know if adults are treating them and you personally correctly? Issues of hygiene, issues of child abuse and the basics of sex education - this was clearly not given to me.
Yes, many children copy the behavior of their parents. But, if children have an alternative: to grow up the same as their parents or become different, where can they get other role models? At school you have the opportunity to receive not only education, but also upbringing. It would be nice if our children were able to:
- distinguish good from bad not theoretically, but practically,
- plan your life
- do not put off problems, but solve them as they arise;
- be able to calculate your finances;
- be able to protect yourself and know the basics of survival,
- know and apply practical rules of communication.
And finally. There are many losers in life and that's normal. Nature specifically made people different in terms of laziness and intelligence. But if you don’t teach a child anything, he will have less chance than others, even if the child is naturally smart and active.
Which school subjects helped you in life, and which turned out to be completely unnecessary?