#4. Less biology, more business skills in school
Some thoughts on how to make K-12 education more productive
Cytoplasm - I vaguely remember that word from AP Biology, but haven’t used that word or concept after the final exam for that class, 15 years ago.
I enjoy history, but I can’t claim that Charlemagne ever came in handy in my career thus far.
When I think about the most useful things I’ve learned in K-12, here are some that readily come to mind:
Writing a 5-paragraph essay
Making a presentation to a class
Arithmetic and algebra
Touch-typing
And here are some things I wish I learned more of in school:
Basics of economics, business, and personal finance
Basics of MS Excel and data analysis
Hypothesis-based problem solving
How to work well in teams
Foundations of physical and mental health
I view K-12 education as having two primary goals:
Equip students with general skills that are widely applicable in daily life
Help students discover their interests and define what they want to do after high-school
In my view, high-school time should be distributed as 40% core and 60% elective.
Here is how I would distribute the CORE (non-elective) time in high-school:
70% in general skills (e.g. spotting logical gaps in arguments)
30% in general knowledge (e.g. introduction to biology)
0% in specialized knowledge (e.g. molecular formulae)
0% in specialized skills (e.g. squid dissections)
Electives should allow students to either:
Sample what specialization in several different fields could look like - so that they can better choose their college major; OR
Go deep in one area of interest, such that a student (if he/she so chooses) can work in a specialized area right after high-school
Please note - this is just “WHAT I’d like to see”. I completely recognize that the “How” is filled with practical difficulties, and I may write about some of them in the future. For now, I just want all of us to be aligned that knowing the SUM function is much more important than knowing about cytoplasm.