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Comment by Koshkin | Hacker News Reader

If I were a teacher, I would begin an introductory chemistry course with these words: “Chemistry is the single most important area of knowledge today and for all foreseeable future. (Sorry physics.) This is because the world we live in and we ourselves are built from atoms, and because all future progress, the very evolution of the human being, all rest now on our understanding of the limitless possibilities presented by an ability to control atoms’ behavior. It is chemistry, in its modern sense, that holds the key to the future of the humankind. We may never reach the stars, we may never understand the “true nature” of elementary particles - but that’s OK, because 99% of what’s really important for us in the world we live in can indeed be modeled - and controlled - based on the simple view of the world as a bunch of atoms interacting in certain ways.”

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> Chemistry is the single most important area of knowledge

Well that's what a chemistry teacher would say, and a literature teacher would say literature is most important because it lets us understand our place in society etc. etc. The computer science teacher would say every white collar worker now works with computers, it has transformed the world as we know it, that's the most important one.

The English-as-a-foreign-language teacher would say learning English is the most important thing as it opens up the window to all the sciences, all the international news, communication across cultures, just about all employees today in any industry need to know English etc.

But of course history is the most important one because [...].

No, actually sport (PE) is the most important one, because [stats about obesity, heart disease etc.]

Or wait, no actually, scratch all that, the most important thing kids should learn is practical everyday skills, not ivory tower stuff they'll never use. So basic finance, taxes, credits, budgeting, elections, etc. all the way.

It's a trope that teachers always think their subject is the most important and give an amount of homework as if no other subject existed and students could spend all afternoon preparing for just that class.

Although as I read my comment, I think this would be pretty nice: if teachers actually pitched their subjects. But they usually just act as if it's the most important one, without arguing it.

That is more or less the same pitch of physics, while most of the important activity is taking place in the biosciences at the moment.

The underlying assumption is reductionism: if we understood atoms best, we can understand and control everything built on them. I am not sure that I can agree with you on that. Complexity makes that a pipe dream.

We understand atoms well enough already; as far as “bioscience” is concerned, the current focus is on molecular structures (chemistry in its modern sense) as the most promising direction of research.

Pretty sure every kid who hears "is the single most important area" zones out for the rest because they know it's pointless intro material. Then they zone back in for the real material.

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