What+Should+we+Teach+in+Schools?+Andrea+Wallace

Less will mean more in national curriculum Sydney Morning Herald, The, 03126315, Mar 02, 2010 is the article I have chosen to view.I wholeheartedly agree with Tim Hawkes (Headmaster of The King's School Paramatta) that we need a national curriculum. Not only do students have many challenges to face should they move interstate, but teachers also face curriculum issues. It seems the idea of learning in more detail will benefit everyone concerned, rather than covering an endless amount of information in a shorter space of time.I am glad to see changes being made towards a more relevant course of learning. Whilst traditional pieces of work (such as english texts) are important to understand, many of our topics of study no longer seem relevant to our fast moving, ever-changing world. Our curriculum should include our own history and be centered around our needs for the future. This will help our students gain a better understanding of the society they live in, and how they can best make a difference around them.

Part 2 Student poll I have spoken to 6 students, aged from 13-16 years, and from 2 different schools. The three youngest are from one school, and the remaining three are at a different school. Interestingly, the 3 older students all believe they should be learning skills that will enable them to survive in the adult world. Subjects such as Food Tech, Wood Tech, Driver Education, Health and Human Dev., Business and Financial Planning and Drug and Alcohol Awareness programs were all mentioned as being highly important in this time of their lives. The three younger students mentioned subjects such as maths, science, english, history and languages, so "you could get into uni and get a good job when you are older." They also mentioned that sport was an important part of the school curriculum, as was health and positive eating programs to stop you getting overweight and unhealthy. These student views seemed to be similar to some of those expressed in the media. The younger students come from a school that is a high achieving academic school, and they are of the opinion that the more academic and educated you are, the brighter your future will be. The media constantly bombard us with statistics and figures showing these high performing schools and the numbers of students who go on to further academic study and how these students are somehow more successful than those who don't. The older group of boys have a better understanding of the relationship that exists between learning about what you love doing and how it will help you in life after formal schooling. Whilst they understand the importance of well developed literacy and numeracy skills, they often fail to see the purpose of working through endless tasks that have little relevance. "Far better to know how to feed yourself or pay your bills," says one boy, "geometry won't help me much at all."