My point is, some topics are taught to a range of people with the understanding many of them will not benefit from it. Just what level of return on investment is necessary to justify doing so is a matter of debate.
Modern curriculum design theory has designers start by identifying the learning that is essential for the course and then making sure the course focuses on making sure that is mastered. then they identify the material that is good to know, nice to know, unimportant, and (finally) off topic.Those topics should be stressed or eliminated in that order.
One of the reasons for that is
interference theory. Time and effort spent learning that which is unimportant or off topic interferes with the student's ability to learn that which is both essential and good to know. It also causes students to forget the important stuff too easily.
Another reason is that adding
requirements that are unimportant to the learning can keep the student from achieving that which is important.
As an example of the latter, I know several people who are business owners now and have been for several years. Their businesses are reasonably successful, but they are hampered by the fact that they do not have much formal training in business theory and practice. When they went to college, they wanted to take such courses because they intended to be in business after graduation. They could not, however, take a business program at their colleges, because to be a business major or minor there, you had to have completed second year calculus. These people were not strong enough in math to pass classes at that level. They are plenty strong enough in math to handle any math required to run their businesses, but second year calculus? Nope.
I asked a business faculty member of another college why their schools had this prerequisite, and he explained that it was a filter to limit the number of people taking the classes. Without that filter, they would have many more business students than their current faculty load could support. I asked him why they did not require a 2-mile swim as a filter instead. He said swimming had nothing to do with business. I said neither did second year calculus. In these cases, a requirement that had nothing to do with the education program was preventing capable and motivated students from taking classes they truly wanted and truly needed.
If you have the time to add something like that to a course, if the students have the ability to learn it without interfering with the rest of the learning, and if they are interested, then go ahead and add it. Otherwise, best to consider dropping it.
I use my computer. I was never taught tables, but they're so simple I just did a little "Cyberdyne" search and figured it out in like two minutes. I have since laminated tables as a backup and keep them in my gear bag.
