I've always wondered about this, not sure if a Science forum can help

[turbo]

If you can't understand why a project has developed the way it has (history) or how to describe a double helix (art) or be able to write a simple papern (English) that's readable to those who might or might not give you funding on it's basis, then you can never consider yourself educated. To truly explore the universe, you really should be acquainted with all of it's facets.

Well-rounded would be a good way to describe this. Back in the 18th C in America, it was expected that children from well-off families should read Latin and Greek, and be able to access historical texts in those languages. It was also expected that the children show proficiency in mathematics and sciences. Until the "socialist" practice of publicly-financed public education gained a foothold, this type of education was reserved for the wealthy, who could hire private instructors, or could band together and hire an instructor and support a school that more children could attend. This type of education was inaccessible to the poor, and often to females.

There were "dame schools" that helped fill some gaps, but often children were seen as "help" in the family enterprises, and were not willingly allowed to better themselves if their families were struggling. We live in better times, in this regard, IMO.

 

[AlephZero]

While, at least in my opinion, "History of Airplane Engineering" would be useless...

It depends how it was taught. If it was just a catalogue of the USA's (or Russia's, or China's) achievements that were supposedly infinitely superior to the rest of the world's feeble efforts, then of course it would be useless.

On the other hand, if it explored topics like

* Changing attitudes to risk (and litigation)
* Reactions by the industry, the media, politicians, etc to serious unforseen problems
* The historical role (proactive or reactive) of independent safety regulators

etc, it could teach engineers a great deal about real world engineering, which is a different subject from how to get the right answers to coursework problems.