English literature GCSE

Hmm...at school there is a difference between English Language and English Literature for good reason, English Language should introduce you into the skills of writing clearly and understanding other's writing. English Literature if well taught (maybe I was particularly lucky) introduces you to other people's views and impressions of how human society works. And how to tell a good story to those with a different background to yours.


All the above skills are vital for engineering teams (although of course individual engineers may survive without one or more of them). Engineering is about meeting society's needs through the application of science, therefore an understanding of that society and the ability to effectively tell a story to explain an engineering solution to a non-engineer (or even an engineer form a different discipline) are vital if we're going to deliver a useful service and, incidentally, get paid for it!


I'd actually disagree with the idea above (can't see the exact wording while writing this so apologies if I'm misquoting!) that human survival skills are hunting, heat, shelter etc - there's one more which is unique and essential to humans and is the reason we are "successful", and that is communicating with and understanding others. Even, say, Ray Mears relies on the collective understanding and appreciation of other human knowledge and "stories" for his field survival skills.


No school subject is essential for engineering (no, not even maths*), but every additional subject can enrich our value as engineers i.e. making us an effective part of a hugely diverse but inter-dependent society. 


Cheers,


Andy


* I did actually turn my calculator on at the weekend, rather surprised the batteries were still live! This was because I'm in the middle of building yet another guitar and needed to calculate the string spacing. Nothing to do with the day job.

Hmm...at school there is a difference between English Language and English Literature for good reason, English Language should introduce you into the skills of writing clearly and understanding other's writing. English Literature if well taught (maybe I was particularly lucky) introduces you to other people's views and impressions of how human society works. And how to tell a good story to those with a different background to yours.


All the above skills are vital for engineering teams (although of course individual engineers may survive without one or more of them). Engineering is about meeting society's needs through the application of science, therefore an understanding of that society and the ability to effectively tell a story to explain an engineering solution to a non-engineer (or even an engineer form a different discipline) are vital if we're going to deliver a useful service and, incidentally, get paid for it!


I'd actually disagree with the idea above (can't see the exact wording while writing this so apologies if I'm misquoting!) that human survival skills are hunting, heat, shelter etc - there's one more which is unique and essential to humans and is the reason we are "successful", and that is communicating with and understanding others. Even, say, Ray Mears relies on the collective understanding and appreciation of other human knowledge and "stories" for his field survival skills.


No school subject is essential for engineering (no, not even maths*), but every additional subject can enrich our value as engineers i.e. making us an effective part of a hugely diverse but inter-dependent society. 


Cheers,


Andy


* I did actually turn my calculator on at the weekend, rather surprised the batteries were still live! This was because I'm in the middle of building yet another guitar and needed to calculate the string spacing. Nothing to do with the day job.