[Sussex] Worth a read

[Mark Harrison]

Geoff,

You make some excellent points.

I implicitly posed the question "what should we drop to teach more
fundamental IT skills"?

I think that "MS Word, and MS Excel" are two excellent answers to that
question.

Time to review my own O-levels. I went to a school that had a VERY broad
"compulsary curriculum" through to O-level, and relatively few options.

The compulsory subjects I did to O-level:

- Maths
- AO Maths (because I was in a high stream)
- English Language
- English Literature
- French
- History
- Geography
- Chemistry

My options:

- Latin
- Chemistry
- Music
- RS

Note the complete absence of IT or "Business", but here I am, Director of an
several companies, one that sells derivatives software, one that makes
hardware, one that provides IT Consultancy services :-)

M.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Geoff Teale" <gteale at cmedltd.com>
To: "LUG email list for the Sussex Counties" <sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: [Sussex] Worth a read


> Mark..
>
> ..hopefully the last I'll post on this, because I think we're all saying
> the same thing from different corners.
>
> <snip>
> > Of course, this is a matter of degree, and there will be "basic skills"
that
> > should be taught to everyone, but here's the question - who decides on
this?
> > Is there a consensus? Which of the following are "MUST HAVE" skills for
the
> > 21st Century:
> >
> > - Addition
> > - Subtraction
> > - Algebra
> > - Calculus
> > - Spelling
> > - Punctuation
> > - Grammar
> > - Debating
> > - Logic
> > - A foreign language
> > - Understanding of a foreign culture
> > - Citizenship
> > - Financial literacy
> > - Doctrine of personal responsibility
> > - Personal creativity
> > - Abstract pattern recognition
> > - Chemistry
> > - Electronics
> > - Boolean logic
> > - The Von Neumann architecture and Turing machines
> > - Music appreciation
> > - eMail skills
>
> It can be boiled down into broader topics:
>
> Science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology)
> Mathematics
> English
> Creative Arts
> Business Studies
> Computing
> Electronics
> Languages
>
> ...When I went to school all of those subjects were available, some of
> them were core curriculum (Science, Maths, English, Creative Arts)
> others were options, you chose based on your preference and what you
> felt you might do with your life.   This is not ideal, but it was OK.
> The problem however is not what subjects they taught but what those
> subjects covered.
>
> Computing at my school was Word Processing and Spreadsheets on an RM
> Nimbus 8086 (this was around 1993).  Business studies at my school was
> Marketing Plans, Word Processing and Spreadsheets on an ancient
> Amstrad.  Electronics was pointlessly trivial.  The other subjects were
> all taught relatively well.
>
> The real problem of IT eduction, and indeed electronics and business
> studies, is that the people who know what is important, and how to teach
> it aren't involved in teaching it - they mostly work elsewhere earning a
> lot more money.  The government meanwhile listen to businesses who
> demand kids leave school with whatever skill is fashionable this week (I
> know the IT industry has seriously suggested that we teach kids about
> CISCO kit and we already specifically teach kids about MS Word and MS
> Excel rather than about generic computing skills.