Hi Jim,

Thanks for writing to us with your idea! We are always working to add features that improve our site, and we love getting input from our community.

Best,

Daniela
Community Support

Is anyone looking at what a core base of knowledge is required to be "A good citizen"?
There is a lot of emphasis on STEM but most people are not going into STEM trades. I have a Masters in Computer Science from 1972 but most the people that I know have not used Calculus since they left school and everyone of them including me would have to lookup most math formulas on Google before trying to use them

There seems to be a real lack of thought about what is the minimum knowledge that everyone needs in order to participate in public life.
Citizens are expected to vote on going to war with countries that they could not find on a map. They are asked to participate in wars between Shia and Sunni nations with no clue about what they believe or why they are at war.
What is the minimum world history, religion, geography, math, language, literature, science , etc. does a citizen need to know in addition to their own community interest (Canadian history in my case) to be able to understand the society that they live in.
My view is that this should be taught before the 9th or 10th grade (earlier if possible) and then look at specialization leading up to university or trade schools. In my view we  teach too much of some things and not enough to be sure that we have an educated electorate or a student that is capable of changing careers multiple times.
STEM is great but I am not sure how sufficient that will be at the ballot box or when the student becomes a plumber or hairdresser, a hedge fund manager, SEO analyst or a real estate broker.

nwheele348,

I do believe we all need STEM, but not necessarily for work.  For example, it might be very useful today if everyone grasped that mathematical concept from the 70s commercial (Clairol?) about "You tell two people and they tell two people . . .".  We are not all going to work in STEM, but we'll all be affected by it.

Citizenship was just a "need of the moment" when I wrote my comment.  Really, I was wondering more about the kinds of knowledge one needs to be a productively functional member of society.  I'm not aware of any organized effort to define such needs, but I would like there to be one.

Your "voting" perspective is a good example of a real world motivation for defining such knowledge needs.

Perhaps, one could say the entire educational system is engaged in such a pursuit.  If that's the case, my hopes are dashed!

I think that we are agreed on the need for a basic level of understanding of certain concepts including STEM topics.

I agree think that an understanding of basic arithmetic is pretty useful. Not sure if any of my grandchildren will ever actually do division using pencil and paper but it is good to know how to structure a problem that might use division.

Every citizen should have a certain level of understanding of physics, chemistry, biology, geology, natural history, etc.
I have no objection to teaching of computer science including logic as well as coding.

I am a bit worried that STEM is pushing out equally important areas such as history and geography at a time when decisions are being made and sold to a population that has no way to evaluate the impact of what they are agreeing to let their leaders do.

I hope that some organizations will start to look at a minimal level of mastery of basic life skills for everyone while they are improving the systems ability to act as a tradeschool for businesses.