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

I'd drop a lot of the homework, possibly only introducing it at a high school level. I'd drop grades for young students - up to middle school - and adjust the grades for the upper levels so that an average mark - a C in the states - actually reflects the average levels.

See, I think when your average or goal is an A - perfect - it doesn't leave room for those that go above and beyond what is expected. It also makes it so that the struggling students are really, really far behind. I mean, think about it. A C student struggling and earning a D would get help, yet in the current system, they still get help at the D or F level, yet their peers are generally making A's or B's - so the difference is greater. I think we could make use of standardized testing better as well, with fewer and shorter tests.

I'd also do much more cross-learning. Want to teach kids to work in fractions? Teach them to cook, teach them to read music. Actually apply maths, including algebra and geometry, to real-life scenarios. History can be taught with literature - and science, and math. After all, many scientists were really given a hard time because of the politics of the day.

Above all, I think general skills should be the focus. Everyone should know how the justice system works in practice (not just theory). Folks should know how to get credit and keep it, how to file taxes, what taxes are used for, and so on.

We could also do Much better teaching about health. I had many classes going over basic anatomy and sex education, where they mostly told us that it could make a baby and we could get horrible diseases. Unfortunately, learning how to take care of your own body, what to do when you are sick and when to go to the doctor or ER aren't included. The same goes for learning about healthy relationships, signs of abuse (for both sexes!), and learning about the needs of children are absent and I generally think this sort of thing is a shame.

Where? At least in the 90s, my experience being in VA, GA, and NV, this is not an accurate statement. Algebra was a prerequisite for Physics in high school.

> School curriculum structured more like an RPG skill tree.

This is already, partially, the way things are, or at least used to be, experiences with different states may vary. Curriculums include prerequisites for courses. You can't take Calculus without trig and/or pre-calc, which require algebra II and geometry.

If a school permits students into courses that they aren't qualified for, the school has failed the student and should be called out for it. Hell, I wasn't permitted to take courses I was qualified for because of moving between states and differences in course descriptions/names (until my parents pressured the school).

Once kids know the three R's then maybe you can introduce some of these other topics. Writing effectively is a job skill (and one that is lacking as anybody who hires and reads cover letters knows). Basic algebra is practically a prerequisite for programming. You mention learning how to "invest in your future" and that is was I think the standard curriculum aims to achieve.

I agree with you that the order of planets and capitals of states are not particularly useful knowledge by themselves. But in order to understand the what is going on in the world knowing geography is pretty important. If you work in any company of a certain size (whose business spans states or countries) then you should not have to refer to Wikipedia for context for every business decision.

It has been a while since I have been in school but I have managed to offend a few teachers since with my suggestion of getting computers out of the classrooms completely. This might have changed but when I was in school the students already knew more about computers than the teachers and the teachers could not effectively teach using tools (computers) they did not know.

I very much agree with this. Back when I was in high school we had some overlapping topics in Math and Physics. But in the Physics class we'd actually see things applied to the real world (e.g. a quadratic equation representing the trajectory of a cannon ball), and that made the stuff learned in Math a lot more interesting to me.

> Unfortunately, learning how to take care of your own body,

This should be fixed in PE. I only got interested in being active after I was already an adult (and a very sedentary one). For years I hated the thought of doing physical activity because I associated it with PE class and all the bullshit I had to endure (bullying and having no option but to play sports I didn't really like).

Would be nice if we were taught at school about body composition, nutrition, different results you can get from exercise (strength, hypertrophy, endurance, that kind of thing). PE is often instead a bunch of random stuff with no explanation of what results can be expected.

This has good and bad points. My sister went to one school, which let her take physics without the algebra course. She was interested in Physics, but wasn't as good with math. Only.. in the context of physics, it wasn't so much of an issue learning it. It provided context. The same can be said about complementary courses: You can take physics, but you gotta take the complementary math as well. My sister was quite upset when she changed schools and they wouldn't let her take the physics course without the math course.

Alternatively, many schools offer 2 levels of physics courses: One has the traditional math-focus and the other is usually labeled, "applied physics", which focuses on the effects of physics on things without the math focus. I think this lets folks understand the world around them without actually having to do the hard science - much like folks learn about chemical reactions and biology - and can understand it - without doing the math that goes along with it.

In a way, it is an extention of the school being "intertwined with practicality" sort of thing in the second point.