I watched a debate on TV the other day that was ver interesting. In the UK students are generally supported equally in the subjects they choose to do. Basically, if one student chooses art and another chooses maths they are told that the subjects are just as important as eaach other and they don't interfere with what they want to do.

Do you think that they should be encouraged no matter what they choose or should they be told that subjects such as science and maths are more important to take?

Personally, I agree with the later. I think that in real life subjects such as science, maths, English, etc... are more likely to get you a better more rewarding and emotionally fulfilling job... Personally I regret taking some of my subjects in school as they were very useless in real life, I wish someone a bit wiser told me that some subjects I wanted to take were useless instead of encouraging me.

If they told student the truth, who would enter art class?
Think of the unemployment rate for art teachers...

Would this work, I wonder. I'm mean, an art teacher will tell you how important art is in real life (for instance, to become a fully rounded human being or something equally tripe)

This could also mean that teachers will start to slander eachother ("... as opposed to math..."

No I disagree with you. Because it could force people to do subjects they hate, which would cause them to get disillusioned with the education system.

Good angle, didnt even think about that one.

But really, if you are too stupid a student to not make an educated guess on what you will be needing in later life, then you should not be studying.

I agree. While Art, Psychology, Music, PE, Drama, RE, Dance, etc. do have applications, they are limited to one or two jobs that can't employ anywhere near the numbers of people taking the subjects in high school. Whereas Maths, the Sciences and English teach logical and analytical skills that apply to almost any job today - you are far more employable.

So, in terms of future job market, those subjects are more useful. It is really sad to see people take 4 Arts A-levels (or 3 Arts/1 Science with and then get a D grade and drop if after a year).

at OP:
I think you should work in the business world (namely accounting/finance etc) if you think those jobs are more emotionally fulfilling. Most people in those industries are murderous, dog-eat-dog types who's goal is to climb higher up. Don't confuse a bigger paycheck for emotional fulfillment.

You'll find very few top level employees that haven't lost their souls (I know from personal experience that I've only met a handful that haven't, and a lot of them that have weren't even that high up, so the trade off baffled me).

I would say that the fact that most government funded schools (at least here in Australia) don't have each subject available that is accepted/assessed as part of that states certificate of high school education (HSC in NSW and VCE in Victoria, not sure about the other states) would suggest that students are told that some subjects are more important then others (every state funded school teaches english and math methods, but not all teach subjects like indonesian, even though they are available under HSC and VCE and can go towards your credits/score for that certificate).

On top of that, certain subjects are given bonus marks and others a reduction in marks based on the difficulty of that subject. In that way, a student would be hard pressed to choose arts (which gets marked down after your score is calculated) against math methods (which is marked up) because it's easier to get a crap score in math and it being boosted up to a good score then getting an initially good score and having it valued down.

Personally, I would agree and I do tell people not to do certain subjects/to do certain subjects because of the potential jobs later on. It may sound like I didn't in what I wrote before this paragraph, but that's because I think this discussion is futile because no matter what, schools/government/people giving advice would lean towards placing importance in certain subjects, whether intentionally (i.e when I give someone advice) or unintentionally (not offering all available subjects in schools).

I think up until high school it's important for kids to have a well-rounded education in which every subject is stressed equally. Once they make it to high school, though, and have to start thinking about what they want to do, it's important to be honest about the job prospects of different career paths, and let the kids decide for themselves.

Honesty is almost always the best course of action.

My honest opinion is that in high school, people do need to take some science classes for sure, history is always good to know, math is a must, but english... eh.

I really couldn't care less about english. I honestly haven't learned anything useful in my 4 years at high school. I've taken the most advanced english classes possible, but I want to be an engineer, and I do not need to know how to interpret the meaning in a poem/novel/etc. It's a complete waste of time; it's like they ran out of stuff to teach us in middle school so they decided to come up with some bullcrap to keep us busy for the next 4 years.

Another thing...
http://progressiveboink.com/nick/images/calvinandhobbes/CH940127.JPG

Do I really need to know stuff like that? No, not really. That's why I think that some history is good, but we don't really -need- to know exact dates for all the information we're given; I don't remember half the dates I learned in my AP US History class last year because it was pointless.

EDIT: Looks like the link isn't working, so look at the third comic from the top.

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm

For me, I would definetly say that some subjects are more important than others and students should be told that. I am actually in college right now (almost done, thank goodness) to be a teacher. I have actually taken lots of classess that address this very issue and It's pretty unanimous that some classess are more important. That said, I think a students should be encouraged to pursue art or whatever less apreciated subject if that is where their talents lie, but they should be informed that people that pursue the more fundamental subjects are much more likely to find a better and more rewarding job. I am actually going to be an English teacher, I'm pretty pumped!