Subjects studied in high school. Anti-rating: the most useless school subjects

Let me make a reservation right away - this is my personal opinion as an ex-schoolgirl and mother. Let it be subjective, but reasonable. It’s just a shame to watch how children and teachers spend a lot of energy, time and nerves on lessons that no one needs.

The school curriculum is such a thing that hundreds of copies have been broken. And it seems like they change it every year, the long-suffering one: they add one thing, then take away another. Sometimes they juggle with astronomy, sometimes they dance around Orthodoxy lessons with a tambourine. What do we really want from school? Give a person knowledge that will be useful to him in life? Fundamentals of comprehensive development? Interested in further studying the subject?

I remember my own studies. I know what my own daughter is being taught now. And I have my own ranking of the most useless school subjects.

1. Life safety - basics of life safety

This is an absolute hit. Just deciphering the abbreviation is worth it! She herself is discordant. And in the long form, it’s some kind of stillborn set of words. If you think about it, parents teach their children the basics of life safety. Do not climb into boiling water, do not grab a hot stove, correctly pass the knife and cross the road. What about at school? We had this subject taught by a former military man who enthusiastically told us how to behave during a nuclear explosion. Don’t behave in any way, you will die anyway. Me too. Moreover, like a real hipster with headphones, I will die without even understanding what happened. And knowing how to put on a gas mask correctly will not help at all.

No, knowledge of how to pump out a drowning person, how to wash pepper gas off your face or bandage your arms and legs will certainly come in handy. But military ranks memorized by heart (!) or the practice of writing essays on the topic “The Ideal Soldier” are unlikely. Meanwhile, the first point is usually limited to instructions like “In any unclear situation, apply ice and call an ambulance.” (What kind of practice? What are you talking about?) But the second point is presented in quite a detailed manner. And, in my opinion, this is an extremely mediocre waste of time. The essay can also be written in Russian.

What to replace: first aid classes, how to recognize a stroke, how to act in emergency situations (getting lost, for example). And it would be nice to explain what kind of help a person who finds himself in such a situation is entitled to - from the police, from doctors and officials.

2. Labor education

In the form in which it exists now, it is an anachronism. For example, I was taught to embroider. Guys, are you serious? Embroidery can become a hobby. But devoting school time to it? Of course, the basics of cooking or sewing will come in handy. True, it’s hardly worth sewing an apron or skirt at school. Still, only a few will do this in life. “It would be better if they taught how to darn socks. Or put patches on jeans,” I muttered, hand-stitching with a needle. For what??? Why do I need these skills? However, I don’t even darn my socks – I throw them in the trash with an unwavering hand. And my daughter was taught to sew on a manual machine. Apparently, in case it falls into the Stone Age and electricity is canceled.

What about studying kitchen design? As soon as it comes to my own kitchen, I will be my own designer, and not a single school textbook can tell me.

Boys are taught to sand, saw and plan. No, not bad, of course. Although I have not seen a single adult man who enthusiastically knocks together stools. No, I'm lying. I saw one. He makes a living from this. In general, a stool is much easier to buy than to make. Of course, I welcome the ability to hold a hammer in your hands. But a milling machine is unlikely to appear in my family nest.

What to replace: why not teach girls style lessons, since we've decided to raise ladies? The appropriateness of makeup, the compatibility of colors and clothing elements - everything is better than embroidery. Manicure, maybe even the basics of hairdressing. It would be useful again for career guidance.

What about the boys? You know, every woman probably has a dream that her man would be able to fix a faucet or sink. Do you know many men who knew at least something about the structure of the sink before you asked to fix something there? And one more, in my opinion, useful skill is to understand cars. Change the wheel, tighten the terminal on the battery. Know how the hood opens.

And certainly neither one nor the other could use driving lessons. At least at the stand, at least starting, the basics. Personally, I would trade any hoop for driving practice.

3. Physical education

Don't rush to throw slippers at me. I'm not advocating giving up activism. But there are nuances. In most schools, physical education is taught simply poorly. And in general they don’t count it as a lesson. On the one hand, not every school has the opportunity to teach swimming, for example, or skating. And there is no opportunity to take a shower either. And it sucks.

On the other hand... I don’t even know. Maybe tradition? After all, for the last 30 years, physical education lessons have looked the same: for most of the quarter we fool around, play volleyball in a circle, or chatter. And we pass three or four lessons out of the entire quarter like crazy. Despite the fact that the majority cannot do push-ups, sit-ups, or pull-ups correctly. Maybe you learned the rules of playing volleyball or basketball? Nope. What did you do for so many years in physical education? Not clear.

But we wrote abstracts. About the same basketball. This is how armchair fans grow up.

And yet - my, personally, my physical education teacher was so mediocre that he trusted the most active students from my class to conduct relay races. They came up with the stages themselves and carried them out themselves. We felt incredibly cool. For me, the relay races ended when I broke my arm right in class. After this incident, just the sight of the gym scared me to the point of hiccups. And my own appearance scared the teacher to the point of hiccups.

What to replace: self-defense basics and choreography. It will be useful for both. And also - at least some theory of a healthy lifestyle: nutrition, metabolism, other basics of fitness.

Preparing for the new school year is a complex process. Many little things require the attention of parents of future fifth-graders - purchasing office supplies, purchasing workbooks, and choosing a suitable backpack or bag. But the most important thing you need to know is the list of subjects that will be taught in 5th grade in the 2017-2018 academic year.

Required items:

• Mathematics - 5 hours a week are allocated for its study;
• Russian language – 5 hours per week;
• Literature – 3 hours per week;
• Foreign language – most often English, 3 hours per week;
• Physical education – 3 hours per week;
• History – 2 hours per week;
• Geography – 1 hour per week;
• Music – 1 hour per week;
• Fine arts – 1 hour per week;
• Life safety - basic life safety, 1 hour per week;
• Technology - in the fifth grade it comes to replace work; from 2017, as part of technology, it is planned to study robotics, 1 hour per week.

This is a very important innovation, since already from the fifth grade, schoolchildren will be able to master modern technologies, including 3D modeling, for which 3D printers will be supplied to schools.

As you can see, there are only 11 general education subjects that are compulsorily studied. However, in fact, the schedule of a fifth-grader is much wider. And here's why: in addition to the compulsory disciplines prescribed by the basic curriculum, there are a number of optional and elective subjects studied as prescribed by the school or at the discretion of parents.

Optional subjects, their complete list and teaching methods are determined independently by the school administration:

• Natural history - depending on the adopted educational module, may be included in the number of compulsory subjects,
• Biology - the subject is studied either as part of life safety or is introduced as an independent subject, from 1 to 2 hours per week;
• Informatics - at the discretion of the school administration, the study of ICT can begin both in the 5th and 7th grade, 1-2 hours a week
• Civics – not studied everywhere, usually 1 hour per week;
• Social studies is a compulsory subject starting from the 6th grade; in the 5th grade it is studied as an elective;
• A second foreign language, most often German or French, is studied in conjunction with English; taught in parallel with the main foreign language or at the discretion of parents as an elective 1-3 hours per week;
• Natural science is a natural science discipline, 1 hour per week is allocated for its study; often replaced by natural history or biology;
• Fundamentals of religious cultures and secular ethics - can be studied as an elective, 1 hour per week, within the framework of the subject the discipline ODNKNR is taught - the fundamentals of the spiritual and moral culture of the peoples of Russia;
• ODNKNR - teaching the foundations of the culture and traditions of the peoples of Russia can be carried out within the framework of several subjects or as an independent discipline;
• Local history - this subject can be included either in a history training module or taught as an independent discipline.

In addition to these disciplines, the school can teach other subjects as elective disciplines, as well as operate interest clubs and sports sections. Most often this is:

• guitar;
• chess;
• tennis;
• volleyball;
• martial arts;
• football;
• foundations of Orthodox culture;
• rhythm;
• rhetoric.

5th grade: what are we studying?

The disciplines that will be taught in the fifth grade in the 2017-2018 academic year are determined by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science, which is called “On the approval and implementation of the federal state educational standard of basic general education.” The last changes were made to it on December 31, 2015. The list of subjects studied in grade 5 is formed as follows: each school draws up its own curriculum for the coming school year. The plan is drawn up on the basis of the above order, as well as the Federal Law “On Education”, federal education standards, basic plans provided by the relevant department, and a number of other regulatory documents. At the same time, the school has the right to make changes to the curriculum - the main thing is to maintain the prescribed number of hours of compulsory disciplines.

Watch the video about preparing for 5th grade:

It is difficult for a child to study in primary school. This is a fact. But the transition to 5th grade is much more difficult for children. Why? New teachers, new requirements, new subjects... Often, due to unbearable workloads, children's academic performance drops, there is increased fatigue, and frequent illnesses. Therefore, many parents are interested in the question: what subjects will be studied in grade 5? You will find the subject list for 2018-2019 in this article.

5th grade difficulties

While studying in elementary school, the child is already accustomed to a certain teacher, a certain attitude towards himself. And then in an instant everything changes:

1. One of my classmates enters a new school.
2. Sometimes students from parallel classes are combined.
3. New items are being added.
4. There are many new teachers with their own requirements that you have to get used to.

For most children in Russia, such changes cause extreme stress. Therefore, parents play a large role in the child’s adaptation to new learning conditions.

5th grade: what subjects are studied?

Having completed 4th grade, many children - some with joyful impatience, some with apprehension - are waiting for an important event in their lives - the transition from primary school to secondary school.

And fifth graders have something to look forward to:

• meetings with several new teachers at once instead of one well-known primary school teacher;
• opportunities to look at physics or biology classrooms that were previously inaccessible and have long attracted attention with their exhibits;
• acquaintance with new subjects, and the subjects in 5th grade amaze with their diversity:

In some schools in Russia, as well as in Moscow, additional subjects are studied. These lessons could be:

• Local history.
• Rhetoric.
• ODKNR (fundamentals of the spiritual and moral culture of the peoples of Russia).

Parental help

Even in the 3rd and 4th grades, the child learns basic concepts in the Russian language and mathematics. This learning always happens at a fast pace. It seems that the child is learning everything diligently. But does he know everything so well?

Often during Russian language lessons in the 5th grade, the Russian language teacher, for example, asks for the name of a particular part of speech. Children raise their hands and answer willingly. But! You can hear a lot of possible answers to the question. This suggests that many children lack basic knowledge or have forgotten it during the summer holidays.

Why is this happening? The fact is that in elementary school, in lessons and at home, these concepts were memorized, but not fully understood. And I couldn’t understand the material.

Children who have entered the 5th grade really have a lot of knowledge in their heads. But children don’t always know how to use them.

It is important: to develop in the child the ability to hear and analyze, extract the necessary information from memory and logically construct an answer.

Many new subjects will be added in 5th grade. And here the child’s ability to work with printed material, with text, with words comes to the fore.

Recently, there has been a decline in the ability to analyze text information:

• highlight the main thing;
• find the right answer to the question asked.

Modern children act much easier. They Google information on the Internet. There is a list of sites where you can read the answer to the question.

Of course, modern technologies have simplified life, but at the same time we must ensure that the child learns to highlight the main information himself. To do this, even in the 4th grade, while doing assignments on literature or natural history, discuss with your child what you read, ask him questions on the topic.

How to help a future fifth-grader this summer?

5th grade material usually begins with a repetition of facts about the subject already known from elementary school. If a child studied well in elementary school, then it will not be difficult for him to remember the material covered.

If the student had difficulties in learning, then parents should think about helping the child improve his knowledge before school. A good solution in this case would be:

• “Summer school” in a private training center;
• lessons with a tutor.

It is also recommended to give your future fifth-grader good, age-appropriate books during the holidays. Moreover, this does not have to be literature that children will study in class. Quite the contrary! It's better to read what they don't teach in school. Otherwise, you lose interest in reading.

Children who enter 5th grade often forget how to write some letters over the summer. Give them small texts that need to be copied into a notebook without errors. This will develop the student’s attention and spelling vigilance.

During your vacation, travel with your children and expand their knowledge about countries and cities, rivers and oceans. This will broaden the child’s horizons and allow him to more quickly navigate the school curriculum.

Here you can see an optimistic review from a fifth grader about how easy it is to study in 5th grade:

School is a place where a person receives a knowledge base that will help him find his occupation in life and calling. The list of subjects at school is very diverse, and this helps the student decide on the direction in the exact or

The first place learning begins is the Russian language, reading and mathematics. The main task in the first months is to accustom the child to perseverance and patience, diligence and accuracy, and the desire to learn something new.

In addition to the main subjects, they also include disciplines such as drawing, technology, the environment, singing and physical education, so that the child expands his horizons and so can find his own hobby.

From grades 4-5, a foreign language, religious culture and secular ethics are added, which expands the boundaries and opens up new directions.

Russian language and mathematics lessons

Russian language and mathematics are the main subjects that start from the first and end in the 11th grade. These two subjects are considered the basis of all basics, because without them it is difficult to write or calculate anything, and in life it will be difficult to cope without studying these subjects. A person will only be able to speak, but his speech will be illiterate.

Unlike the Russian language, which is studied throughout the school years, mathematics is divided into 2 areas in the 7th grade: algebra and geometry.

In elementary school, the student learns basic skills: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, operations with fractional numbers, and only then algebra appears with the study of coordinate systems and systems of equations, as well as geometry, where vectors, stereometry, and planimetry are studied.

Lessons in biology, geography, history and computer science

The list of subjects at school does not end with the basic subjects. Sciences such as biology, chemistry, physics, history and social studies or geography lessons, where you can learn about the whole planet, can become very interesting and exciting: in classes, children study types of soils, minerals, climate and population of the globe, continents, countries and much more.

Thanks to such subjects, the student understands more and more what he would like to do after receiving basic education, where he would like to go to study after school. Russian language and mathematics identify humanists and people with a precise mindset, and additional compulsory subjects help to find direction.

For example, if a child fell in love with “The World Around us”, then biology and chemistry, then perhaps he will want to become a doctor or go to study to become a pharmacist in order to create new medicines.

What subjects are missing at school?

All subjects that are taught in school today, from Russian language and literature to geometry lessons and a second foreign language, should form an educated person who will find his way in life. But some scientists argue that there should be an additional list of subjects at school that will definitely be useful in life:

1. Applied Mechanics - Many children find subjects like algebra and geometry very boring. But if all the rules and new topics were put into practice, surely more people would become interested in the exact sciences.
2. Latin is the basis of the Romance group. Thanks to your knowledge of Latin, you can easily learn not only English, but also French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
3. The history of philosophy is a complex discipline that may not be understood even after school. However, such a subject will teach you to think more comprehensively, systematically and will help you gain some ideas that may be useful in life.

In addition to these subjects, you can also add the study of martial arts, film production, familiarity with areas of religion, and music.