al_yrpal wrote: ↑1 Aug 2021, 8:58am
After spending 20 years as a Professional Engineer I realised that I had missed out on being exposed to and appreciating Art so I started an OU Arts degree. Just the foundation course made me realise the value of studying 'the Arts'. In particular studying History and forensic critical thinking which was an eye opener. I believe students studying technical subjects would benefit from some sort of Arts based additional subject to sharpen thinking skills.
The A Level degree route doesnt deliver a person with the right skills for industry either. Only a student apprenticeship seems to but thats expensive for an employer to deliver.
Al
Good to hear this from a professional engineer. Thanks.
When a country tries to go technical only it loses its soul. I so often heard amongst young people who had gone off the rails, “Who needs history/French/whatever?”. This sentiment in relation to Latin is all over twitters just now. People say unless I am going to be a lawyer. Lawyers don’t know latin:they know Latin phrases.
I know English grammar because I did Latin.
I support Mr Williamson on this item. Unfortunately, he has little credibility in the world of education. His case would be stronger if the more obvious educational needs such as literacy and numeracy were addressed. In many state comprehensive schools it is not possible to do separate sciences. They were dropped to enable better GCSE grades in the league tables. In my own local Academy it was impossible to go to medical school. If you wanted to be a doctor you had to study something else like biological sciences then after graduation go on to medical school.
This began prior to the Conservative government.