Oct 31 2012: I'm a little concerned with the phrase "useful knowledge". The world is changing rapidly, and one can't just tell what knowledge is going to be useful by the end of his/her studies. Besides, more and more professional fileds require cross-discipline approach, often not from closely related areas.
The course "writing for science people" would not help in this case: in order to write well, one has to read and practice writing a lot. It impossible to achieve within one-semester writing course.
If scientists want to communicate with the rest of the world, they better be able to explain (in coherent and popular way) what they are doing. Interesting and well-written academic article gets higher citation rate as well.
Same goes for liberal arts. I think that math, physics, biology, chemistry, programming at their primary levels should be introduced to the students (say, as a part of bachelor degree). They are the sources of the very natural, basic logic. Studying them helps developing clear, structured and at the same time creative thinking. They are an essential part of everyday life in our techno-world in which all, even humanities-majors, live.
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A comment on Conversation: Education system based on useful knowledge
The course "writing for science people" would not help in this case: in order to write well, one has to read and practice writing a lot. It impossible to achieve within one-semester writing course.
If scientists want to communicate with the rest of the world, they better be able to explain (in coherent and popular way) what they are doing. Interesting and well-written academic article gets higher citation rate as well.
Same goes for liberal arts. I think that math, physics, biology, chemistry, programming at their primary levels should be introduced to the students (say, as a part of bachelor degree). They are the sources of the very natural, basic logic. Studying them helps developing clear, structured and at the same time creative thinking. They are an essential part of everyday life in our techno-world in which all, even humanities-majors, live.