Off Course

There are a few courses I’d like to see added to the high school curriculum. These aren’t in what most people would consider the category of “basics.” Nevertheless, I think these courses are necessary for a young person in America today.

Course number one is “Critical Thinking.” Some colleges offer this. Put succinctly, it is a course in developing one’s bullshit detector. The course addresses such questions as:

What is a logical argument?
How can language be used to clarify or confuse an issue?
How do propaganda and advertising work?

We are all bombarded with dubious advertising claims and illogical feel-good marketing. Politicians and political activists of all stripes confront us with arguments and counter-arguments about critical policy decisions. In our own private lives we encounter complex situations that require clear thinking. A course like this prepares students to separate fluff from substance and make sound decisions.

Another required course should be “Direct Democracy and Meeting Facilitation.” Here in Vermont we might call it “Town Meeting 101.” Whether you live in Vermont or not, many times in your life you will find yourself in a room with a group of people who are trying to make a decision together. There are no courses that I know of in public school that teach people the skills they need to get through this. Thus, all the endless, unfocused, contentious, and ultimately useless meetings we know so well.

When I started being politically active in college I actually studied how to facilitate meetings, that is, how to run them and make them work. It wasn’t magic, but it seemed like it when people were able to finish a meeting early and walk out feeling good about what they accomplished. People need to learn how to run a meeting, how to efficiently participate in one, and how to achieve a unified decision. All they learn right now is how to shut up and follow.

Young people should take a course dedicated to our constitution. They don’t need the depth of instruction offered to law school students, but they should understand the framework of our country, its history, and its meaning. It is imperative that they have an understanding of how our government works and the extent and necessity of our constitutional rights.

There should be a course dedicated to the history of science and scientific method. Many people don’t understand the difference between science, non-science, and pseudo-science. They don’t understand the way scientists work, what constitutes a properly conducted experiment, or how experimental results are presented and interpreted. As with politics (and generally because of politics), we are confronted with conflicting claims in the fields of medicine, the environment, sociology, psychology, and education itself. We need the intellectual tools to sift through these claims and identify the ones with scientific validity.

I have a couple of ideas for less vital, and yet very useful courses for high school students. One would be on energy – where it comes from, how we extract it, how we use it, and the consequences of using it. Another practical course would be on “How Ordinary Things Work.” For example, most of us are utterly dependent on automobiles, but most people have only the foggiest notion of how their automobile works. Likewise our furnaces, refrigerators, air conditioners, computers, and our telephone system. Yes, there are professionals out there to repair these things, but we still need to make informed decisions about their selection and use.

How about offloading a couple of things to make some space in the schedule?

A show of hands please – How many of you have solved a quadratic equation since the final exam of your high school algebra class? Let’s see…..one……two……ok, two. My own work requires a large number of calculations, but my use of algebra is rare enough. High school students have a limited amount of time, energy, and memory capacity. Parents and educators need to make some decisions about what most students will actually need in their post-school lives, what will develop unique mental skills, and what is just another brick in the backpack.

Team sports, especially football, need to be de-funded or at least dramatically de-emphasized. Ok, these aren’t academic courses, but that’s the point. What used to be a minor diversion for school kids and parents has become, in many places, the focus. High school football, especially, diverts funding and attention away from teaching kids what they will need to know in real life. Besides, ask any orthopedic surgeon about the effects of football injuries on developing bodies.

The focus on team sports results in a bizarro world where young men with remedial reading skills (in part due to the focus on sports) get full scholarships to major universities. Meanwhile, students with reasonable academic abilities, who could and would actually benefit from a college education, are left scrounging for student loans.

Detecting bullshit, running meetings, understanding democracy, and understanding science – these are things that your average American could use all the time. The quadratic equation and the shotgun pass? Not as much.