Rechtschreibfehler said:
So things that actually have meaning to a lot of people shouldn't be taught? What should be taught than? Only applied mathematics and applied sience?
What about the foundations for anything like that? How would people get them if they only learned the directly applieable parts of it? Who'd ever find the foundations for that again?
And out of curiosity: what is the meaning of "useful" in the way you are using it?
Or to make it short:
if you don't learn anything about life or the general meaning of things, why would you learn at all and not rather be dead already? It seems to me nothing is left anymore, if the foundation of anything like independent thought is killed off before it can even arise.
By things that have a meaning to people I suppose you mean music, arts and crafts. Those are hobbies and a vast majority doesn't indulge themselves in those hobbies and they really serve a purpose in school for a small percentage.
In Finnish curriculum music means that you sing in school or play instruments if you know how to, 80% of the class doesn't do either so it's useless.
Arts is pretty much the same, you just draw and most are crappy drawers and it's not like you get any better 'cause nobody teaches you to get better. Crafts is useless, because again a very small percentage will ever do something remotely close to that again. If you have to have crafts then make it useful and teach things that come up in mundane life, not how to make ornaments.
Many things in life have a meaning to me but I don't expect them to be taught in school, 'cause they serve no meaning to most of my peers.
And by useful I mean things that serve a purpose to you in your later life and you can think "oh great they taught me this at school so I know how to handle this" when you encounter a problem. So far drawing or singing has never got me out of trouble. Neither do I think that those things are sophisticating in any way. Million things could be said to be sophisticating that aren't taught in school.
School is supposed to be about educating people, not making them waste their time with things that aren't relevant at all. Elementary school math is okay, you learn all the basic stuff there. But after that in upper secondary school here in Finland, you are taught things that are of no use unless you decide to pursue a career in mathematical field. To most people it is just a waste of time learning things that you forget soon and never have to use again. School should be less mandatory in terms of subjects you have to study. You should be able to choose subjects that are useful to you in your future when you go to university and so on or choose subjects that hold a meaning to you. Education would be more efficient that way and people could concentrate on things that they find interesting/useful and all the unnecessary crap could be left out.