The current education system in many countries encourages memorization of facts and striving for grades for grades sake. The important themes of life have been neglected and students /young people have been left to grapple with the aftermath. The authorities that be need to take note and have these introduced to school curriculum. Why is important concepts such as philosophy, human psychology, social relationships/marriage not taught in our schools? The schooling of students has, for a long time been about accomplishment, competition and conformity. I am for accomplishment, success, and discipline but schools could do better if they also taught the skills of well‐being and the skills of achievement.
These are things I must teach my children when the time comes: These trite objects in a very huge way help determine the success of human being in life.
Philosophy.
Teaching philosophy to children has been shown to sharpen reasoning and communication skills. Moreover, students who engage in philosophical thinking are better able to grapple with concepts that might otherwise be beyond their grasp. Young people should be encouraged to cultivate the habit of free thinking, having independence of thought, revive the culture of reading, particularly history and philosophy of their chosen fields. Beyond teaching children to ‘think well’, spreading philosophy is a safeguard against the sorts of educational and societal structures that tend towards authoritarian control.
Psychology.
It escapes me why this is not taught as a compulsory subject. Young people ought to know how the brain functions, how behaviour is molded and so forth.
Truth be told, unless you become an electrical engineer like me, you’ll probably never have to worry about physics and the photoelectric effect equations or how to calculate the amount of current drawn by a given electrical load after your get your KCSE/KCPE/Diploma/Degree certificate. I can also assure you that you will never use matrices or integrals in your life in the real world.
Yet I do know that no matter what field one goes into, you will need to know how to understand and communicate with people. You will need to know how to deal with all different types of people, and you will need to know why they act the way that they do. Everybody should know that. It is something that can’t be learned in math class by multiplying polynomials, but at the same time, everybody, including mathematicians, needs to know it. Books like Influence by Robert Cialdini, How to Win friends and influence people should be standard texts. Isn’t this more important than a letter on a report card? Than get an A?
Psychological ideas are popular in everyday life because the subject matter of Psychology is people, but not popular in education. “Psychology is the scientific study of human mind and behaviour: How we think, feel, act and interact individually and in groups”.
Huge number of transferable skills (including. Critical thinking, conducting research and Communication) are major themes in psychology and they are essential to help one communicate and work more effectively with people in a constructive manner.
May be it should be included in the curriculum and examined using non-conventional schemes.
Relationships/Marriage.
If we take classes to learn the skills we need to survive in the world at large, as well as the working world, should we take classes to learn how to be a good spouse, too? Is there a place for marital education amid calculus, physics and geography classes? Most schools nowadays have classes for students in sex education but not relationship education. Why is that?
Since this topic is rarely taught or discussed deliberately in schools. Young people are left clueless as to how they can achieve a goal they almost universally seek. Most are able to depend on the teachings and traditions of the larger community in life matters as finding a lifelong mate and getting married. Yet we know how deep the society is skewed when it comes to this matter. The elders and their parents have little to no say as regards this matter. They are left to try to figure it out by themselves. The little guidance they can get is from the movies and soap operas. Consequently, young adults are floundering and often failing in their personal and family lives. Failure to prepare young people for healthy love and sex can reverberate destructively throughout their lives.
