by Eva Clark

Created on: April 15, 2009   Last Updated: April 17, 2009

Speaking from the vantage point of a United States citizen, I will restrict my ideas to those schools located within the United States. Also, as an advocate of public education, I am especially directing my ideas toward the needs of public school students within these United States.

That being said, I think a wide spectrum of subjects should be included in any full-bodied curriculum. I further believe that the basic subjects of communication arts, mathematics, science and social studies, inclusive of all its strands, should be mandatory. How can you have an educated student without having taught them about themselves and others through psychology? Or not subject them to political science, or sociology? What about history and anthropology? Should we exclude their knowledge of geography, or economics, even of philosophy? No, that will not do. Music areas and physical education should also be mandatory. All are valid subject areas that have proven over and over to be substantial contributing factors to the development of the whole child. The mandatory subjects should require at least a mark of satisfactory before the student is allowed to pass to another grade level. Students and parents should understand this at the start of the educational experience.

Students need to continually learn communication skills, math skills, science and social studies facts. As students grow in their minds and emotions, which are nurtured by physical exercise and expressed through music appreciation, they will broaden their knowledge base. The more students grow and experience a self-knowledge of this growth, the better understanding they will have of themselves and their relationship to the world. These responsible students will then start contributing in positive ways to the overall well-being of themselves and society.

Ideally, to further enhance societal outcomes, the students should be exposed to vocational education in all its disciplines. Technological education should be inclusive in all subject areas, especially here in vocational education. All of these disciplines should be equally respected. All the teachers, academic, visual and performing arts, and vocational, are fine educators in their respective fields. Students and parents have to understand early in their educational experiences that there are no bad subjects, none better than the other. There are only good subjects, each to be valued and appreciated. Education in any subject area should be seen as a privilege.

Finally, I really want to see the return of chess clubs, driving lessons, the various foreign language clubs, volleyball and swimming. This list goes on and on. I would like to see all these subjects and areas included in the curriculum of schools. All subjects work toward the development of well-rounded, logically thinking children who can be ready to make thoughtful, healthy choices which can impact society positively.

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