Recently, there is an opposing view about whether students should only be taught academic subjects or be also taught with non-academic subjects like physical education and arts. In this essay, I will discuss both arguments and give my personal perspective over the dispute.
Academic subjects inarguably is important for students simply because they need them to excel in academic and work settings. This argument is supported by the data showing over 50% of students across the world lack ability in solving simple Math problems and find difficulty as a fresh worker because of not being able to operate simple presentation application like Canva or PowerPoint. As a result, most students have to reinforce themselves with bootcamps or courses post study to fill their knowledge gaps that they did not get during studies.
Though we can easily remove non-academic subjects like physical education and arts from our curriculum to be replaced by more academic subjects, like basic presentation, such actions should not be considered. First, physical knowledge equip students proper knowledge in keeping their body fit in this harsher, rapid-changing environment with adoption of sedentary lifestyle. Second, many real-world problems require not only Math, science and other academic subjects to be solved, but instead more likely the combination between academic and non-academic subjects. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg can build multi-billion dollar company not only because he is a good computer scientist but also he is a good communicator, where he employs science and art along the way.
In short, we cannot separate the importance of academic and non-academic subjects be taught to students as a general. What we should do is ensuring that both can be balanced for students as future generation.