Poll of the Day > In terms of importance, how would you rank the four core school subjects?

(+) Yeah! (+)

the four cour subjects are science, math, english/language arts (or I guess your countries equivalent ), and social studies.history.

I'd say english>math>=science>history

english is a clear first because if you can't read or write, then you are basically fucked in our society.

math and science teach problem solving skills, but you probably rely less on the knowledge that you learn in science. science does teach great skills like predicting and analyzing data.

history teaches us about our past and how our current societies came to be

english is the most important up untill about middle school where it becomes by far the least important
other than that history>math>science
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English>Science>History>Mathemathics
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english
history
math
science

Math
English
Science
History
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History
English
Science
Math

History is easily the most important, we have phones and computers to do math for us.
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TheSlinja posted...

english is the most important up untill about middle school where it becomes by far the least important

Sounds about right, though I might argue even earlier than middle school. You can get pretty far with a grade 6 reading level, and even if formal English education stops you're likely to be able to develop beyond that by reading on your own. Similarly, math is extremely important up until you figure out algebra (or at least the basic concept of being able to take known values and arrange them to produce the desired unknown), and then ends up being largely useless outside of increasingly niche applications the further up you go.

Science is a lot more important than many people give it credit for simply because of the value of scientific literacy. Taking science to specialist levels is only useful for people looking to specialize accordingly, but having a basic understanding is important to be able to understand important issues that are reported from time to time. A lack of general scientific literacy is why things like climate change denial and anti-vaxxers emerge, as well as why the pharmaceutical, oil, and food industries are able to get away with so many lies. Granted, lower-level science classes don't typically teach that kind of scientific literacy and healthy skepticism in the current system, but we're speaking generally here, so I figure I can be more broad and hypothetical.

DocDelicious posted...

History is easily the most important, we have phones and computers to do math for us.

We have phones and computers to do history for us, too. Meanwhile, you do need a certain degree of mathematical problem solving ability to get a computer to do math for you, even if it'll handle the actual computations.

Elementary: English > Math > History > Science
Middle school: History > Science > English > Math
High school: Science > History > Math > English

English is very important early on, but its value drops precipitously afterwards.
Math is also important early on (and early on is the most basic, practical math anyone needs to know) and then becomes less important, but at a much slower rate of decay than English.
Science is usually too complex to be taught in great detail early on and requires a foundation of math first, but steadily grows in importance the later in education you get.
History is pretty much always about equally important (I'd say...fairly important) and can be used as a "benchmark" to compare the other three topics' importance if you want.

_AdjI_ posted...

DocDelicious posted...

History is easily the most important, we have phones and computers to do math for us.

We have phones and computers to do history for us, too. Meanwhile, you do need a certain degree of mathematical problem solving ability to get a computer to do math for you, even if it'll handle the actual computations.

Yes, relying on people learning "facts" about the past via random internet searching has worked out so well for us.

science
math
english
history

literacy analysis i do feel is the most important topic out of everything but the other parts of english class i dont really care about. writing good aint that important

streamofthesky posted...

_AdjI_ posted...

DocDelicious posted...

History is easily the most important, we have phones and computers to do math for us.

We have phones and computers to do history for us, too. Meanwhile, you do need a certain degree of mathematical problem solving ability to get a computer to do math for you, even if it'll handle the actual computations.

Yes, relying on people learning "facts" about the past via random internet searching has worked out so well for us.

About as well as letting them learn about it via 40-year-old textbooks. At least the Internet offers alternatives, albeit ones that need a healthy dose of scrutiny.

Are we talking teaching actual history or what passes as history in schools?

I think I'm gonna cast my vote for PE.
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