CMV: High school Maths and other STEM subjects should be optional.
Now I know that there have been numerous posts before about this. But I feel that they mostly miss how to deal with some points that other people usually bring up to support compulsory math in HIGH SCHOOL. I do believe that basic math is important such as primary school and that schools should find more engaging ways to teach people Maths. But I believe that students should have a choice on more of their subjects once they begin high school.
Now let’s deal with the main points I usually came across:
- Maths promotes critical thinking - Yes that is true , but what about chess, puzzles, strategy games , songwriting or even coming up with stories in your head? All those promote critical thinking in one way or another.
- Maths is everywhere - This is also true to a certain extent but unless you're doing a career that involves alot of advanced Maths, then most of the Maths you will mostly do is money counting or algebra. Not everyone is going to take an advanced Math subject as a career and those that do in order to make their ends meet can use online lessons.
- It helps make people more well rounded - I find this a bit annoying because you don't have to be great in everything to be successful. Top athletes didn't become successful because they mastered Pythagoras theorem , or where great in History and Coding. They became successful because of how they were push themselves in one field that they were talented or passionate about, You will get out far more being the best in one field than being decent in all the others.
So yeah that's pretty much it. I know that I maybe I missed out some parts but I just wanted to keep it as short as I can.