Where is balance Academic priorities 261

Which is sufficient in most real-world cases, and most of the rest can be handled by thinking ahead about what you'll probably need to learn in the near future.

There is a bit of stuff that should be learned regardless of the knowledge ever being needed, but that's mostly because if you ever happen to need it you don't have time to read any books anymore. Oh, and the schools weren't much use in that anyway, compared to, say, the Boy Scouts, Red Cross, or some such (and of course the military).

Besides, I had this textbook about electronics design for kids already when I was 12 ...

Yes, and it's hard to teach that in a school too. After all, a school because of its fundamental nature can't encourage long-term retention of such data, as there isn't enough time in the curriculum to ensure that the students really do need enough of it again without further warning at an early enough age.

Basic math clearly should be an example of that.

Um. What, actually, is the factor that limits the kids' exposure to other kinds of thinking etc? I don't see how a school would be guaranteed to do better than the parents. Likely to, maybe if we buttume parents who don't make any effort in that direction, sure.

I do remember being exposed to rather wildly varying viewpoints on several issues even within the family, and that was before visiting the local library or even grandma's book stash or anything...

-- #Not speaking for my employer. No warranty. YMMV.