That is an interesting point (framing as a strawman). Something was bugging me in the article, though I think I agree with many of the points made, and your comment recalled it to mind.

Both fundamental and practical education matter in most realms.

Practical example: medicine (modern allopathic "western" medicine, i.e. the job of a physician, something I know and can comment about relative to both basic science and software). The author implies that time is "wasted" in basic science, when students could simply be more involved with patients. Leaving the value of patient contact aside (most schools do involve students early these days to provide context and motivation), one of the whole points is to provide a multi-level framework for better incorporating later knowledge. This allows a person to adjudicate new findings and therapies, guide their patient and practice, figure out novel situations of atypical presentations (often due to overlapping processes or red herrings).

Anyhow, I'm sure others can think of similar examples in fields they know.

Also, perhaps one of the western European folks here can comment, but I seem to recall that trade apprentices in, say, Germany, generally still have a pretty decent core knowledge of math, language, etc from school. I.e. pretty comparable to an "academic track" US high school student, excepting AP courses. True?

> Also, perhaps one of the western European folks here can comment, but I seem to recall that trade apprentices in, say, Germany, generally still have a pretty decent core knowledge of math, language, etc from school. I.e. pretty comparable to an "academic track" US high school student, excepting AP courses. True?

I'm not sure about Germany, but in Switzerland, "school" is mandatory until the end of middle-school. After that it can really be anything between zero classes, 100% on-the-job apprenticeship and general, academic track high-school. Selection is mostly done by grades, since they're a good indicator whether school/classes/lectures work for a student or not. Most people go to trade schools and will indeed attend core math, language, geography/history classes. But the amount and depth of these classes aren't close to general high-school. They cover maybe 50-60% of the material. And then you'll have people in dual school/on-the-job training, where core classes are really reduced to the bare minimum.

Note that all tracks offer bridges to tertiary education, at vocational universities or even sometimes proper universities, so that you aren't stuck forever if you didn't take education seriously as a teenager.