To think the school system is ridiculous

I did Julius Caesar for Inter, Hamlet for Leaving, along with Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, The Charwoman's Daughter, Lord Jim. Poetry selection great, actually got poetry book we had for Leaving a few years ago, brilliant. Did Leaving 45 ish
years ago! Also, the Irish language literature was very good, loved Tóraíocht Diarmuid agus Gráinne, Padraic Ó Conaire short stories etc. Also loved Peig tbh🤣.

Maths hasn't changed in 100 years as it is still very relevant! A leves are hard for a reason.usually their results are used for deciding which course at Uni. My own DS passed physics, Chemistry and Maths. Found it quite hard.When at uni found it harder! Honestly the current word is very maths/stem based.jobs with STEM subjects are important and usually better paid .I listened to KS on JV yesterday on the radio .KS said teenagers in Suffolk are excited about jobs at the prpopsef new Sizewell Reactor. They will need strong math set for this

But everyone you know is not the same as everyone. People have different experiences. I presume you never liked algebra etc and that's fine. It doesn't mean though that lots of people don't need it and use it in their jobs.

My teacher told us that what we learned was equivalent to a football player training by doing sit ups. You don't do sit ups during the game, but they make you a better and stronger player overall.

What you learn isn't just about what you learn but about reasoning, critical thinking, etc.

Even those who do manage to switch to a vocational stream find it very difficult to find apprenticeships/entry level jobs after. Despite critical skills shortages, every trade job seems to require at least a year of experience

Two of my kids are going into maths careers, one an actuary, the other not at the point of deciding just yet, but it will be maths, so a lot of it is relevant to them. In the UK, maths would be dropped at 16, so advanced maths only for those selecting it at A level.

General education is designed to give you a solid foundation in key subjects, so you can specialise later. If anything, it’s becoming more crucial to educate children in this way because it can help them to respond flexibly to the rapidly changing job market.

Ten years ago a lot of people were insisting coding needed to be taught in schools since it was more ‘relevant’. Fast forward to now, a lot of programming jobs are being replaced with AI and some coding languages are obsolete. Knowing the basics (algebra is the basics unfortunately) and being able to work things out from first principles helps people to pivot and future proof their knowledge and skills.

Bit of an aside, I hated reading the classics in school because they were boring and I didn’t see the point. Now I’m grateful I was made to, because I can read or watch pretty much whatever I want and understand the references.

I think that learnijg about tax is useful for example

My kids who took high level maths at school, and then continued it in whatever form at uni and use it in their professions, never learnt about tax at school. Yet, none of them have any problems understanding tax, even though they were not explicitly taught about it! They can very quickly work things like this out because they have been given the grounding in how to understand stuff, how to work through and compute it, which is a good skill!

What careers use algebra?

Lots of sciences. Astrophysics wouldn’t exist without it! Some types of engineering. Also, one of my kids uses it routinely in their job, it’s not accountancy but sort of related in a vague way.

Because your thoughts here on the topic of mathematics come from a place of ignorance. In particular the '100 years' bit wrt Algebra.

Also, what is 'the science industry'?

You post a statement like that, yet you say you want to have an adult conversation?

A level and degree level, I use degree level maths every day at work, I use basic algebra everyday in my personal life, as do most people.

https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/7b479fe6-245a-41f9-bf25-29b991d83875/LC-English-Prescribed-Text-List-2025.pdf

Actually, FYI, I am including this link to the LC English syllabus for 2025. (PDF).

It's not a bit as boring or restrictive as you're suggesting.

There are other playwrights besides Shakespeare, many novels, modern and older,, and a great poetry selection.

I think what all of this boils down to is whether you as a student felt curious about or interested in the material you studied. I did, and even all these years later, I and dozens of my peers still do a lot of reading. I'm not just talking about those students who went on to university either.

I did The Merchant of Venice for the Inter (in the late Jurassic), and Coriolanus for the LC. It's pure coincidence that you and your relative ended up doing King Lear. We study Shakespeare because Shakespeare is an extremely important and significant dramatist. Phrases of his are used in general speech and in literature.

I recall doing Portrait of a Lady for the LC, and there was a great selection of modern novels, and cracking poetry. Also Francis Bacon's 'Of Youth and Age'.

I still have my anthologies from back in the early 80s.

Yes it does. But you were replying to posts referencing algebra and it’s relevancy specifically, so not sure why you started talking about maths in general?
Also you don’t mention the word maths until halfway through your reply. When you say ‘it’ a number of times at the start of your post, the natural assumption is you’re addressing the points the previous posters made about algebra.

Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, but it’s exactly what I mean about the lack of coherence in your argument.

Algebra is the foundation of all higher level maths.

Sure, it's difficult for many, but that's part of why it's 'relevant'. It requires that students stretch themselves and engage with a topic they may find challenging or uninteresting, and it teaches them to reason.

What do you mean when you use the word 'relevant'?

They're not 'learning those things' (i.e. quadratic equations, etc).

They're learning to reason using abstract terms and complex operations.

Learning to think is what education is about.

Everything else is training, not education.

DC2 works as a scientist and is having to do a maths course to help them do their job, even though they have already studied maths to a very high level.

Further, the only reason the tech exists is because people knew stuff in the first place!

And yet I bet you use algebra regularly but disregard it!

It’s all fun and games until technology fails and we need to rely on people to actually…know stuff.

Might be obvious to you, but no one else is seeing it.

The problem with teaching tax to teens is that it does not work. It's been tried and tried, and not surprisingly, teens just are not interested.

Algebra is relevant to anyone working in STEM. It's the first step in learning maths that isn't just arithmetic. I don't use it explicitly, but I use the abstract thinking / concepts every day (I'm not in maths or engineering.

If you want to understand English literature, you need to understand Shakespeare, and there's a limited selection of his plays that work well for school learning. I'm not sure why always King Lear, though.

I think you are right in that the education system is geared towards those who want to go to uni. The vocational streams were phased out, but that was a mistake for kids that just aren't that academic.