No math? No history? Sounds like a breeze, right? Some people are disagreeing.

Finland, a long-time worldwide leader in education, plans to eliminate single subject teaching by the year 2020 in favor of teaching by phenomena. Read more in this article.

The idea is that, instead of a traditional history class, subjects will be taught “in a more applied way.” For example the article states, instead of a traditional one-hour history class, students will take a two-hour European Union class covering languages, economics, geography and, of course, history. The idea behind this change is that this style of teaching will eliminate the “Why are we learning this?” and “When are we going to use this?” questions.

Not everyone is excited though. Teachers have been specializing in teaching traditional subjects for years and will now need to collaborate with their colleagues to implement a “joint teaching” style.

What do you think about this change? Do you think it would work in the United States? Do you think this would impact how students choose their intended majors/careers? How do you think this would change your readiness to get into the workforce?

Weigh in and let us know what you think!