TED Conversations

Jessica Figueroa
San Diego, CA
United States

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

do you think psychology should be one of the main subjects that should be taken before graduating from high school?

Learning Psychology is learning about yourself and others as individuals so it would help the students to know more about themselves as humans being, and that would help them in better decision making, problem solving in life situations, and gain more confidence in themselves. Many young people this days dont know what to do after high school so they do whatever comes in their way, i'm not saying psychology will fix their problems or make them a better person, thats their decision. I just think learning about themselves and others is a good way to start the next level of their lives.
whats your opinion about it?

Topics: behavior change future psychology social change

Sort By:

Bruce Murray
- 0
Sep 13 2011: Hey Jessica[and your friend],

Stay curious, hold your head up, keep your eyes open, and keep asking questions.

Bruce
Benny boy
- 0
Sep 4 2011: i went to spirituality because religion didnt give me the clarity about myself i intended.
i suggest you make your own decision based on how you feel rather than use peoples advice.
at least then you act on your own authority.

responsible freedom of self determination. being truly self confident and free without being coersed by some other authority. only you know who you wanna be, everyone else has good guess based on pic and some words.
- Jessica Figueroa
  - 0
  Sep 6 2011: thank you :)
abdulrhman aldossary
- 0
Sep 4 2011: YES BECAUSE THE WILL TEACH YOU IN FUTURE WHAT YOU WANT TO GET IN YOUR LIFE .ALSO THE psychology TELL US WHO TO BE AGOOD STUDENT IN SCHOOL OR UNIVERSITY ALSO THE psychology TELL YOU WHO YOU GET THE HIGH SCORE IN ACADMIC LFE .
Farrukh Yakubov 50+
- 0
TED Translator Associate

Aug 31 2011: No. Doing so may take away uniqueness from young people.
- Jessica Figueroa
  - 0
  Sep 1 2011: interesting ... how is that going to take away uniqueness from young people?
  - Farrukh Yakubov 50+
    
    0
    TED Translator Associate
    
    Sep 1 2011: Simply because, in most of the cases young minds are vulnerable to be affected by uniform education. Therefore, later in life, 80% of students who had such type of courses are going to have very similar decision making behaviors.
    - Bruce Murray
      
      0
      
      Sep 3 2011: Farrukh, you are suggesting that young minds are vulnerable to education. Yes. Students learn languages, mathematics, sciences, etc. in classes and with textbooks that are the same and from some of the same teachers. That is how i learn, mostly. 80% of who will be what why? Why 80%? Did you make up this number, or did you actually do some research? Your post contains no information, and is completely incomprehensible. [oops, have I been trolled again?]
  - Farrukh Yakubov 50+
    
    0
    TED Translator Associate
    
    Sep 4 2011: Hi Bruce.
    First of all, I wanted to let you know that I appreciate your comment.
    
    The answer to your question "80% of who will be what why?" is already in my previous post, how ever I will restate it in a simpler way.
    80% of students who had uniform education will have similar ways of thinking. Because, young minds are vulnerable to education.
    
    And, where did I get 80% depends on your definition of terms 'research' and 'making up'. I did not get this from any literature, nor searched for one. Also, I did not just came up with random number. Based on my lifelong observation of the world, my experience and knowledge, I believe that 80% is the right amount for general case.
    
    Moreover, I disagree that my post contains no information. There are two very good reasons for that. First, it is not random sequence of characters. Second, It is my opinion which I believe is true.
    When it comes to your last idea, I think that my previous post might be a little complex, but it is not incomprehensible.
    
    Thank you for your response and for reading this.
Samantha Wilson
- 0
Aug 31 2011: I think psychology is an incredibly interesting field of study, however I personally believe it would be more beneficial to involve high school kids in team sports or something of the like, rather than a psychology course. Instead of sitting down to learn about how you should make these decisions or solve a problem - you really need to be actively involved in developing these skills. In this instance, I agree with Frans, It’s about interaction and reflection...
- Jessica Figueroa
  - 0
  Sep 1 2011: oh there is a lot of different sports you can do at school already, and we interact with people since the day we born, and most of young people dont learn from interaction and reflection, they just want to have fun and wait for what the future brings to them, instead of them building their future. and you can make classes fun, not just sitting around listening, we know most of humans get bored easily, thats why there are methods to make classes interesting.. Thanks for your point of view, still not enough to change mine
Bruce Murray
- 0
Aug 31 2011: Psychology is the study of the mind. It is not about decision making, problem solving, making life decisions, gaining confidence, etcetera. It is a science. Psychology would be a valuable part of any education[unless you are building bridges]. Right now it is an exciting field indeed. Get all you can.
Cognitive thinking is a useful skill within psychology, however. You can get most of what can be learned in high school from an hour or two with your school counselor.
For myself I have learned a great deal about myself, and other things as well, from reading books, interacting,and reflecting. Hanging out with the smartest people I could find helped a lot. Fun too.
From what you say it sounds like something you yearn for is missing from your curriculum. No doubt. I believe that critical thinking, ethics, philosophy, and how to read good smart stuff deserve more attention than they get.
Meditation, hatha yoga and martial arts are all good stuff, but really have little to do with high school except as sports[yes meditation is a sport].
It sounds like you are already taking a psych course and enjoying it. There is real science and a whole pile of touchy- feely popular stuff out there. If you don't like what you are being taught at school, ignore, and go to the library[the paper one].
- Jessica Figueroa
  - 0
  Sep 1 2011: Hanging out with smart people? what you mean? that the people that don't have the experience that you have are not "smart"? in my perspective everyone is smart in their own unique way and at different things...
  And the psychology i have taken the teacher really made us learn decision making, problem solving, making life decisions, gaining confidence, we even did yoga.. guess what everyone has their own way to do their things or to teach a class, and we got all the info from a book, is not like the teacher made it up and forced us to learn something we were not suppose to... I know you can learn all those things by interacting with people, but we have been interacting with people forever and it seems like it doesnt work for a lot of young people.
  - Bruce Murray
    
    0
    Sep 3 2011: Jessica, Clearly you have an inquiring mind or you would not have started this conversation. If you are having fun at school, great! I am not suggesting that you quit your Psychology class, or that you are not being educated properly. Most of the things you mention are Applied Psychology. Books written by Psychologists for popular audiences. Take what you want. Three years from now the real Science will be what matters, because your college professors won't care about yoga, and such.
    On a different note did your teacher teach, "make you learn", or not "force [you] to learn"? So you like your teacher and she taught from a book. Good. Why would anyone set out to teach you lies?[don't answer that]
    Regarding smart people, no, everyone is not smart in their own unique way and at different things. You are unique in your own way and are better at some things than at others. I am talking about interesting people who will listen to you, and have something interesting to say to you. Like your favorite teacher. Don't waste your time making excuses for stupid people you don't even know, they are not your problem. I am not talking down your friends. Find smart friends, smart teachers, read smart books, watch smart TV, watch TEDTalks. You started this TED conversation and are talking to smart people who are interestedin YOU and have something to say. That is what makes life fun[if you are having fun].
    Tired of interacting? I don't understand. You have a friend in your picture with you, Whatever. Realizing your potential IS the ride,and there is no "happily everafter" in the real world. There are just more challenges
    - Jessica Figueroa
      
      0
      
      Sep 6 2011: Thank you so much Bruce, reading others point of view is what makes conversations more interesting, it might change the way i think about some things, or it might not, doesnt matter yes i am having fun :) but for some reason it feels weird having to admit that im having fun haha, maybe im not use to this kind of conversations.
Mr. Anony mouse
- 0
Aug 30 2011: Not really. Psychology is a bit problematic subject of study in general, you can only measure indirectly certain subjective characteristics of individuals in large groups and interpolate it as results. It is hard to accurately quantify something as complex as human brain. And your proposal would no good for people who are interested in natural sciences for example. They can think for themselves and figure out how their brain works if they want to.
- Jessica Figueroa
  - 0
  Sep 1 2011: Thanks for your point of view.. but this is just not about the brain, is about behavior too which is the main subject here, i want young people to realize how important their lives are, and learning about the GREAT POTENTIAL THEY HAVE AS HUMANS BEINGS. what other subject will teach them things about themselves and how the environment affects their behavior?? do you think learning about themselves and others wont help them to be better persons?? well my logic tells me yes, for example you want to play a video game, but to be able to control it and use it and be an expert on it, you need to read the instructions, what happens if you don't read the instructions? it will be hard to figure things out by yourself. get it? maybe you just dont see the way i see things, and its ok i respect that, and a pretty much appreciate your opinion !
  - Mr. Anony mouse
    
    0
    Sep 1 2011: I agree to some extent. We had fair share of psychology/sociology in our high school curriculum, but to me everything seemed obvious and I somehow intuitively already knew most of it before even knowing study existed (especially sociology). What exactly do you mean by having great potential as human beings? Also, how do you define a "better person"? In my opinion everybody is unique in some way and psychology cannot fully describe/categorize/predict how people will behave, there are too many variables to be able to make good predictions, you need to meet them and draw conclusions from interaction with them. But I agree it's good approach to obtain some data (however unreliable and study specific) about how our brain functions. I was making that claim, being a natural sciences student myself, I tought it is also obvious to some of those people, but some are not so interested in the subject and if they had no will to learn it - they would just see it as a burden and would "not have smelled it afterwards". With regards to instructions - I never really bothered to read them, I prefered to find it out for myself and used them only after I tought I figured it all out :P However, it is possible I'm projecting too many conclusion on myself.
    - Jessica Figueroa
      
      0
      
      Sep 6 2011: :) thanks for your opinion
Frans Kellner 100+
- +1
TED Translator

Aug 30 2011: I think you overestimate what psychology can do for you. Learning about yourself or others is done by interaction and reflection, not by books. To gain more confidence it is better to meditate, practice yoga or martial-arts.
- Jessica Figueroa
  - 0
  Aug 30 2011: That is awesome! meditation and yoga were also learned in my general psychology class, just creating a system that would include the things you are saying :) thanks

Showing all 21 comments

Sign In

To join or start a conversation, you'll need to sign in. Not a member? Register Now (it's free and fast).

Live Conversations

Live Conversations are hosted by TED speakers and TED Fellows. Ask your questions and participate in the discussions on the following dates and times: