Ask HN: Raising a smarter electorate – How?

Let me address each of these areas separately. I am no expert here, but I thought I would give it a try. First, however it should be noted that a great part of any approach to teaching ought to be in setting an unambiguous example. That is, the teachers and staff must themselves act with all the mentioned qualities. Hypocrisy is a great way to confuse youth.

Self-discipline requires introspection. Psychology is an excellent field for teaching introspection.

Character is comprised both of demeanor and of ethics. Since, at least in my belief, demeanor is not one to be taught, the focus ought to be more on ethics. History is a good field for teaching ethics. However, personally I am strongly against the twisting of history by the teacher (or textbook) to fit a particular agenda, whether religious, political, or otherwise. History is already taught in most (if not all) general schools. Character, to an extent, also can be taught by example. And this example can come from the history lessons and from the teacher.

Decision-making probably ought not to be lumped together as one area. For example, is deciding on what to say in a verbal conflict on the street the same as deciding which formula to use to figure the area of a triangle? Sure, many diverse things can be abstractly lumped together as being similar, but can they equally effectively be taught all by one academic discipline? For technical decision making, perhaps philosophy is an appropriate field. Each grade level would need a different level of philosophy since this discipline obviously comes in different doses. One problem, of course, is that philosophy touches on religion, and I am not going there in this comment.

Ethics... see Character (above).

Personal-finance is a curious one. Surely economics would provide insight into many particulars of personal finance. Since it is generally thought best to learn something near when that information will be put to real use (and consolidated mentally), it would make more sense to teach personal finance issues during a time when the students are beginning to deal with such issues. Higher education is probably an appropriate time. This issue of course varies by socioeconomic status since more affluent children are more likely to have money at a younger age. Sadly, those with less money are the ones who need this knowledge the most, but learning without proximal practice is just wasting time.

Curiosity seems to be of focus already in many early-years classes (grades kindergarten through 6). I remember things like Bill Nye being curious when I was younger, as were many other scientific videos. In a more abstract sense, however, curiosity is probably in general shunned by most current schooling systems. Thinking outside of the box is often thought of as unproductive or risky. I know there are some books available to aid in thinking laterally. I feel it would be nice if these were explored more at later ages to offset the "seriousness" of higher grades.

Thinking long-term surely could be taught to an extent through history lessons. A more personally-focused history curriculum would probably help students to connect with the consequences of various paths. For the topic here, current history lessons focus too much on the greater society and not enough on the individuals. Proper anecdotes from normal people throughout various times in history might be useful. Perhaps history needs more of this and less of the "big picture" stuff. After all, normal individuals are a big part of what makes the world turn -- not just military and political leaders, as many history books would have one believe.

As for the specific, year-by-year curricula, that could take a lot of research, including trial-and-error, to sort out. Also, it would probably be different for each region and even for different socioeconomic statuses. For good or bad, persons of different backgrounds have different academic needs. Please do not take that last sentence out of context, as I am referring merely to what curricula would be most helpful to a particular individual.