As he transitions from middle school to high school in the coming years, sixth-grader Rohan Dash will be taking on more classes, more material, and spending more time studying. With this increase in workload, Dash has reflected on how valuable every subject in school is to a well-rounded education, even when it seems like it will not be useful in future careers. Below, Dash has explained why every subject in school plays in integral role in the development of the student, and the adult, that we become.
As a school student, have you ever wondered how learning multiple subjects will help you in the long run? I have often wondered: “If I am going to be an engineer, then what’s the point of knowing about the history of the Civil War?” or, “If I am going to be a news reporter, what’s the point of learning about the formula for finding the volume of a cone?” Many have tried to convince me that everything we learn in school will help us in one way or the other. I did not realize that my experience with the current pandemic would finally help me realize the importance of the subjects we learn in school. Slowly but surely, it has now dawned on me of how all subjects, despite being so varied, connect together so well, and help us gain a complete and clear understanding of the events that occur around us.
Much of what I have learned in math so far is already proving to be beneficial in understanding the statistics on coronavirus trends. For example, without math, I would not be able to understand graphs that show the number of cases, or pie charts that show the relief packages sent to each state. It has helped me understand the daily trends on various factors such as the number of confirmed cases, number of deaths, and the number of people who recovered. To a certain extent, it also helps me interpret the shifts in in our country’s economy based on the Gross Domestic Product numbers and market indices like Dow Jones. Clearly, math plays a critical role to gather a comprehensive outlook of our current economic and public health situation.
Many concepts learned in social studies can help us gain a better understanding of how pandemics like coronavirus were dealt with in earlier times. We can draw a close parallel with the Spanish Flu that occurred back in 1918. It was interesting to learn that coronavirus is not the first pandemic threat to have ravaged the world to a time of darkness and despair. Social studies also helps to understand the spread of the novel virus on the global map and assists us in locating the places that are epicenters of the coronavirus. All in all, social studies is a very useful subject and helps us understand scenarios both from an historical aspect as well as from a global standpoint.
Another very fascinating subject that is tremendously beneficial in the current public health crisis is science. It not only helps in understanding the nature of diseases but also aids science pioneers in making ground–breaking discoveries to combat diseases. It guides everyone in taking appropriate preventive measures on an ongoing basis to stay healthy. On the current pandemic situation, it helped me to understand why the pathogen is spreading so rapidly and how COVID-19 attacks and harms the body. Numerous science articles have helped us understand how to protect ourselves against the virus. We can understand how our bodies’ systems collaborate together in dealing with the pandemic from both a mental and physical perspective. We can understand what the symptoms are, and what the possible antidote might be. It also proves that wearing masks and other protective gear can help stop the deadly virus from attacking our body. To sum up, science is quite a helpful subject that provides us with information to fight diseases, in addition to helping us lead a healthy lifestyle.
Last but not the least, learning English Language Arts (ELA) has introduced me to several topics, from grammar and vocabulary to writing essays to critically analyzing news articles. Without ELA, we would not be able to understand the numerous articles written about the deadly virus that has impacted us in so many ways. We would not understand the vocabulary used in news media articles. By learning ELA, we can comprehend the reports from news reporters to keep us informed on the day to day incidents that are occurring around us. In addition, ELA helps us in understanding the extra text features such as infographics, charts, and other displays depicted on the news articles.
Everything we learn in each and every subject is useful at some time or another; the coronavirus pandemic has proved that much of what I thought to be unnecessary is on the contrary quite useful. From the mean, median, mode of a set of numbers, the history of Mesopotamia, and knowing how to write an essay, every skill will prove helpful at one point or another. So, when you start to feel like you gain little from going to school every day, keep in mind that everything we learn serves a real purpose.