Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Thursday, July 24, 2008 2:42:05 PM
It's quite common that a student or parent will claim that a particular subject isn't important. The student in question doesn't need it for what he plans to do. Oddly, this usually goes along with difficulty in the class. The future truck driver doesn't express this complaint over the home-ec class he has to take. Perhaps he plans to sew new seat covers for his semi?
One of the common majors for college students is business. Suppose you were planning to open a business (or work in someone else's business). You will probably need some specialized skills, but there are some important general skills you will need too.
Business Week recently did a piece in which they recommended some classes. Among them: English, psychology, foreign language, economics, and statistics.
At the moment, students seem to have a very vocational focus. As I noted, that is sometimes just to avoid a "tough" course. A lot of it comes because students lack the maturity to see the value of other courses. That's why they need good guidance from teachers and parents. Successful people call on a lot of skills.
Communication is vital. This is the importance of English and Speech courses. In fact, I advise my students to get involved in Speech. Foreign language is good for international business, but it's also good for communication. A good foreign language course forces you to think through
how you are communicating. An economics course, as opposed to accounting, teaches about the long-term view. People who live in the moment don't succeed long in business. Those who take the long-term view can ride out the failures and take successes in stride. Naturally, mathematics is important because it teaches students to see things in numbers. Students learn to see mathematical trends when they take the more advanced math courses.
The
Business Week article goes into more depth on all these courses.
Tomorrow I want to finish up this topic by talking about science, music, art, and agriculture. That's actually the one I've been researching!