Inspired a bit by this thread. Same concept, but for academic courses at any level of schooling. What courses do you think would be really useful for a student that you find don’t always get offered, or offered in too cursory a fashion? And why?
My nomination: a very basic course in introductory logic, at the high school level, or at least made a pre-req to writing and speech courses in a university.
The course could cover argument analysis (in both inductive and deductive logics), including basic validity or soundness testing, truth tables, basic inductive fallacies, etc. I think that some of the deductive logic stuff covered in the intro course I took might not be necessary for high schoolers–Aristotelian squares, the history of logic, more advanced symbolic logic for instance-- but just giving kids the idea that arguments can be structured as premises followed by a conclusion, that premises can be strong or weak, the premises should actually support the conclusion, and so on would go a long way in helping them learn to write academic papers. If they’re interested in politics, too, just knowing the basics can make listening to speeches very eye-opening. They’ll be able to write better speeches for that dreaded speech class. They start to see the flaws and manipulation in advertising.
Writing courses touch on a little bit of argument structure in a rudimentary fashion, but I found that even very smart kids who had papers would worry more about style (do I have an opening that grabs the reader’s interest? Do I summarize everything neatly at the end? Did I remember the proper brackets around the URL cited?) yet stumbled through the actual body of their paper, unaware of how to actually write a persuasive piece that held up under scrutiny. And writing instructors grade and critique more on style, too (which is understandable, since they’re not philosophy professors).
When I did mentoring for the intro to logic course at my university, the most common comments made on year-end evaluations were along the lines of “wish I’d taken this before English Comp I,” “my husband is now tired of me pointing out how badly he argues” or “needed this when I was younger.” And the short argument papers written by students for the class almost universally improved dramatically. They went from being bloated and weakly argued (but usually very pretty-looking) to being concise and strong (and still pretty).
Of course, as is to be expected, I’ve probably totally botched any kind of logic in writing the above…
I came in to say “Logic”. Loved my logic class in college, and now do a unit on informal fallacies with my students. I really wish I had time for more: I always tell them to take logic in college.
I was going to suggest stats for anyone. We exposed to so much data every day (50% more effective! 30% of responders said…) it’d be great if people were taught the basics of what makes a result significant, how to critically think about data and numbers etc.
Basic Accounting. Whether you end up a budget manager, a cog in the machine, or someone trying to understand how to invest, a basic accounting class gives a good foundation in understanding how companies operate. And I agree with Stats and Logic.
I agree with your thought that society would be far better off if people were better trained in logic.
Unfortunately, that right there is why I think it probably never will be standard practice to teach people in society these things. For most of the powers that be in our society (mainly corporations and the politicians they fund) having an ignorant populace WORKS.
Economics. You don’t have to spend too long in Great Debates to realize how important it is to most people, and how little familiarity they have with it.
Agreed. When I was in school, I never even considered taking Economics. I figured, it’s all about money, which (A) I don’t have hardly any of, and (B) I don’t find inherently interesting. I’ll leave that to the people who are going into Business or Finance.
Later, when I took the trouble to read up on economics, I found that it’s both more interesting and more relevant than I gave it credit for. It’s really about incentives, and value, and supply and demand, and limited resources and the choices people make about how best to allocate those resources, and things like that. Economic ignorance leads to people making bad decisions, on every level from the individual to the global.
That’s another one I deliberately avoided in school. I was afraid it would be deadly dull: all number-crunching and data processing, with none of the elegant mathematical reasoning that attracted me to mathematics. Here also, when I studied it for myself, later, I found it to be both more interesting and more relevant than I had suspected.
Although, in both cases, I think I appreciated the subjects more as an adult, having had some experience of the real world, than I would have as a teenager.
By all means, but it needs to be presented as the social science that it is rather than a hard and fast form of mathematics, which it absolutely isn’t. Economics is a description of human behaviour, it doesn’t deal terribly well with the crazy and irrational world that we live in which is why if you put five economists in a room and ask them to predict what will happen in a situation you’ll get five different answers.
I would definitely agree with logic. Whilst I’ve never had any formal training in it I studied philosophy at A level so had to utilise it, and in my career developing policy I have to use a highly structured and logical form of reasoning for anything I do so I’ve had on the job training for it. It’s actually nearly painful for me sometimes to hear the “arguments” people come out with in public discourse, like this one. You can hear the sound of the woman’s argument going around in a circle. And for the piece de resistance, apparently gay people having mothers = no need for gay rights. :rolleyes:
Statistics, logic (or better yet, intro to philosophy), and I would also say a basic Earth Science or Environmental Science class – both because it teaches us about the world outside the asphalt fortresses most of us live in, and because it neatly integrates a lot of the other disciplines (stats, chemistry, physics, biology, botany, etc.) into a more holistic perspective. For me at least, it really helps to understand why the things I’m learning matter in their real-world context.
Sounds like bullshit, right? But think about how many films you watch in your lifetime. A basic understanding of how cinematic language works is something that will enrich your life forever, even if you end up in jail or a shut-in. The number one thing people say after taking an introductory film studies course is “I’m so angry- I can’t watch films just to enjoy them anymore. Now I think about them and analyze them.” That illustrates how little cinematic literacy it takes to revolutionize the way you watch films.
Word! I don’t think I understand films at deep level at all but I am not sure I want to either. I have enough mental distractions and ignorance is bliss sometimes. Big Momma cracks my shit up every time even though I can’t tie it back to any deeper truth.
I’ll add Nutrition, and the earlier it’s taught the better. It would be immensely helpful for everybody since we all eat everyday. Everybody should know how to read a nutrition label, understand what the health claims on labels mean, and understand the basics of how our body turns food into fuel. There’s just so much terrible information out there about what to eat that can be dispelled with a simple class on nutrition.
History of English (or your native language) and/or basic Greek and Latin.
I took both of those classes as electives - the Greek and Latin class was “English words from Greek and Latin bases” - and even though I was pretty good with English going in to college, my vocabulary and understanding of language about tripled by the time I was done. Not only that but it helps you understand other Romantic and Germanic languages.
Ha! THANK YOU for validating my existence as a Latin teacher. You don’t know how many parents have told me my job is a pointless waste when their snowflakes fail.
I agree with the logic, nutrition and film studies. Taking those has unexpectedly enriched my life. I would also like to add current events. Some people are proud to live in a bubble. The ancient Greeks had a word for them, as we all know ("idiots ").
