What do they really need to know?

There was a philosophy discussion on saturday and we started to talk about how what the schools teach is always behind the times. Actually we started to talk about learning to tell time and was it necessary to learn on an analog clock since most clocks are digital anyway. This led to the discussion of how fast our world changes and that what we think is important to know today probably won't apply in 20 years. I, of course, still think kids should learn how to tell time on an analog clock because even though there are many digital clocks there are also still many analogs. We have one. Analog wristwatches still sell. I'm straying from the point, sorry. someone said something along the lines of "What gives me the right to say what is important to know?", something like that. But I think that there are core skills that are useful even if we use a more sophisticated technology now.

For me the deifning criteria of a core skill is probably something that can be done without electicity. Here are my set of core skills: reading and writing, basic mathematical operations plus fractions and percentages, public speaking, basic navigation(left from right, compass points),and the scientific method. a smattering of logic would help too. since analog clocks theoretically don't require a battery I'll say learning how to tell time is also important, better yet-learning how to approzimate the time based on the position of the sun. All this stuff can be taught by anybody to anybody. I would tack on hygiene, etiquette and a moral code but that should come from the family first and foremost and then be supported by school. I think if you have this stuff down you can probably make it through any situation. I'm thinking about what can get you through a trip to the grocery store.

I'm not saying that there aren't other topics that aren't also valuable to know but not knowing them doesn't make you a less successful human being. If the schools focused on the core skills and then let the students study more advanced subjects at their leisure everyone would probably be a lot happier. And I don't think Sudbury schools would be worse off if they agreed that there is a minimum skill set they want their students to learn.

The problem is that once you start making a list people want to add, subtract, and usually expand to the point that it becomes unwieldy, incomprehensible or impossible to achieve.