Exercise 1

You have read an online article about changes in the types of subjects taught at secondary schools. The
article says that some traditional subjects may no longer be taught at school. Four of the subjects
discussed are mentioned below, along with some of the readers’ comments.

Which subjects may no longer be taught at secondary school?

Music: ‘Most students who are interested in music take lessons out of school.’
Geography: ‘Why do we need to know the names of rivers and mountains around the world?’
History: ‘It’s all about the past. At schools, we need to be focusing on the future.’
Art: ‘Art lessons allow kids to explore their creativity.’

Write an essay discussing TWO of the subjects mentioned above. You should explain why you think
these subjects should continue to be taught at secondary schools, giving reasons to support your
answer.

Schools nowadays offer a huge scope of subjects students must attend to. However, not all of them are
important enough, or even, not considered by students. On the contrary, educators think their subjects
are essential for their students’ lives. From now on, we will discuss which of the mentioned subjects ought
to continue to be taught at secondary schools.

First of all, geography is considered to be a useless subject to be learned at school. Nevertheless, it is quite
beneficial for teenagers to know about its content. It is often said that people should not know the names
of rivers and mountains, or where some countries are located. It is an interesting subject to learn since
people travel around all over the world, so they need to know what they are visiting, and obviously, where
it is.

Secondly, history comes at the same time as geography. It is not in students’ interest to know what our
ancestors did long ago. However, we should be aware of everything they did in order to not repeat the
mistakes that caused many catastrophes in our history. It is true that teachers could come up with
innovative methods to make their subjects attractive.

To sum up, I would say that all subjects taught at schools are necessary for teenagers' education.
Nonetheless, there are some of them that are important to be taught at school, despite the fact that
students are not keen on learning it.