Reading. Without that, you cannot teach yourself anything else (other than manual labor)

Wow… these answers really reflect today’s educational system. None of you even mentioned music or art as secondary subjects… that’s very sad. I agree that basic knowledge of reading, writing, etc, is important, but where would the world be without its great artists? Many of them, including myself (not to say I’m one of the worlds greatest, but you get my point) got their start in music/art class in school.

Schools have been getting really lazy about teaching right-brained abilities. I mean, is creativity not important enough for them? They’ve put so much emphasis on english, math, and science, that you’d forget any other subject existed, when in actuality it has been proven that kids who learn music are generally more adept in academic areas than those who do not.

Don’t you think that creativity is more valuable than regurgitating the facts that you’ve memorized from some textbook? That’s why music and art are most important.

Basically it’s English for me if you’re talkin about on how to be that globally competitive since English is the international language and you are not afraid anywhere you go around the globe coz you know how to speak and understand English, but on the other hand, for me is Character building especially for children nowadays, i no longer hear the word or subject GMRC or the famous Good Manners and Right Conduct, this is really very important for me in this new generation coz i find it fleeting now which is very sad to know, that’s why, some of our youth today are no longer be the youth of tomorrow neither the hope to become great leaders coz of early pregnancy, drug addiction, early teen marriages and the like, tsktsk …

I would say it depends on what you want to be when you grow up, I want to be an Engineer so the most important subject to me is Physics… But i would also say English and Physics because you need to know how to speak english to get a job and physics because when you have kids you won’t have a stupid look on your face when they ask you a question

English, Science and Math. English is the most important because without it you cannot understand the intricacies of Science and Math.

People who are excellent readers make up to 2.5 times more money than poor readers. So English class is very important.

that’s a difficult one to answer, but i’m going to go with english. i feel that without knowing the proper way to speak and write, it puts one at a disatvantage. not only will you have trouble in school, but also in social situations. i don’t think enough is put into give students the advatage that they need when they go to college or go to get a job as for as english skills.

Basic Reading/English, from there you can learn anything.

math and langwige you use them all the time