Page 81 - 2024-2025 Creative Writing

Balancing Knowledge and Life Skills:
Balancing Knowledge and Life Skills:

What Should Schools Prioritize?
What Should Schools Prioritize?

Most people have their own biased opinions about what schools should prioritize in the

lessons they teach in classes. While most claim that it is more important to focus on

academic subjects over practical life skills, others possess the opposite point of view.

Traditionally, most schools around the world have been concentrating more on academic

subjects. The early exposure to science & social knowledge has allowed learners around the

world to develop parts of their brain for better functioning. Although some advanced

knowledge in math- integration of sin, cos & tan, for example - seemed quite useless

because of its scarce usage later in life, it allowed our brain to work faster. This advantage

is then later used in life, making it easier to learn new things in the future. Academic

subjects directly expand our knowledge and indirectly cultivate practical life skills.

Focusing on improving practical life skills, on the other hand, has its tremendous
drawbacks. It is true that people criticize schools' operations on not teaching children

about "life skills". They say that learning about taxes, insurance at an early age is good for

students to develop a clear image of adult life. However, these matter less in life when the

future citizens lack the mere ability to learn. The sole purpose of school is to teach children

how to learn. So, isn't it a better path for us to expand our knowledge first and learn the

necessities later?

B. Khuslen 12A