In a statement, the council rationalized the reduction by stating they wanted to reduce the content load on students in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. On June 1, India cut a slew of foundational topics from tenth grade textbooks, including the periodic table of elements, Darwin’s theory of evolution, the Pythagorean theorem, sources of energy, sustainable management of natural resources and contribution of agriculture to the national economy, among others. These changes effectively block a major swath of Indian students from exposure to evolution through textbooks, because tenth grade is the last year mandatory science classes are offered in Indian schools.
I think there’s an argument to be made for letting students specialize a bit earlier than college freshman or sophomore 18-20 years old). I think a basic foundation of subjects is something everyone should have, but an entire year of something like chem or physics or bio? That’s about as useless for humanities people as an entire year of reading plays would be for science types.
Maybe a semester on each one is sufficient, and then after 10th grade (16-18 YO) you can choose to focus more on humanities vs STEM. You can still leave something similar to the current curriculum in place for the undecided students. And of course you can still have some crossover with electives.
All of these topics are : How the Universe Works 101
…and they apply to literally any and every field of study…
General knowledge like this is ducking priceless when it comes to understanding… so. ducking. much.
That aside, I also think your specialization comment is stupid. Did you happen to graduate from a school in India in the past 16 months?
I’m a humanities major. I’ve used pythagorean theorem in my life but never the periodic table. However, the table (and Pythagoras) would still be included under 1 semester of chem.
Plus the UK lets students specialize earlier than the US does, so fuck them I guess?
99% of authors or commentators or journos writing about climate change need a 1-tonne solid carbon periodic table smashed over their head.
Everyone in UK would be taught pythagoras, periodic table, evolution at secondary school. Some learning disabled or who DGAF might skip over it or won’t actually learn it; but it’d be at taught in basic terms on the general syllabus for most people before age 16. Certainly anyone specialising in science / maths at 16-18 would be expected to know this stuff at a reasonable level from secondary school.
Having had to choose only 3 subjects at age 16, it’s very limiting for young people who don’t really know what they are doing. You drop one thing and it rules out a whole swathe of things you might never have known would be useful. I sort of wish i’d been forced to do chemistry longer, I dropped it because it was boring and I was allowed to choose stupid shit that proved FAR more useless (Economics).
I’d have probably ended up doing something more interesting and maybe even useful with my life - though maybe the grass is always greener.
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The pythagorean theorem or the theory of evolution is not “super niche knowledge”… Do you understand how foundational the pythagorean theorem is? Or how important knowing the theory of evolution is to understand how nature works?
And the periodic table of elements is literally the building blocks of our reality. Sure, less critical knowledge then the other two, but still vital in my opinion
I mean, how much scaremongering about “chemicals” and stuff could be resolved if people just knew the very basics of chemistry?
These things very much tie into being a rational citizen of the world that actually knows how the world works and doesn’t live in fantasyland. This is literally just stuff to ensure that we share a common fundamental view of reality
Do you understand how little knowing how evolution works has benefit the average persons life? And as a general concept it could be explained in a sentence, nothing needing entire unit material dedicated to.
And scare mongering isn’t rational, so why would you expect people to be cured by being given information.
Because knowledge is a preventative measure to being manipulated
People also say that knowing that historical events happened don’t benefit them, would you agree with that too? These things are a lot more nuanced than just what direct benefit they give you. Knowing the basics of how our world works, including how nature works, is useful.
You have no idea how many times I had to explain evolution to people because it was relevant to the conversation and where they were tricked by some weird bullshit. Gaps in knowledge are exploitable, but not only that, the more you know, the higher your capability of connecting concepts together in a sound manner is
Knowing how evolution works has been generally useful in my life, and I am very happy I know how it roughly works, and the field I’m in is nowhere near biology or chemistry or nature
What? May the universe take care of you my friend.
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I think you could make an argument of combining the essentials of physics and chemistry into a single year long course but that would include teaching the conservation of energy, periodic table and so on.
But I disagree that people don’t use apply these subjects in your life. I think it’s pretty necessary to be able to estimate distance or be able to engineer repairs at home without having to call a professional or order brand new goods, or for chemistry, be able to clean your home without accidentally making a bomb.