teaching 'school subjects'

[Magg]

Hello,

I always teach my students to write the school subjects in capital letters.
In spite of the fact that most couse books present them like this, I´ve come across examples where capital letters are not used.
Even children say to me that their teacher doesn´t pay much attention to the matter.

Must school subjects be written in capital letters or not?
What do grammatical rules say about that?

Thanks in advance,
Magg

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Magg

I always teach my students to write the school subjects in capital letters.

That's great practice. School subjects are also capitalized on the flashcards I have.

Here's the general idea: If you use a word as a proper noun, then a capital is required. For example, My dad; I love Dad. "Dad" is the name I call him, whereas "dad" is just a word that means "father". Similarly,

EX: I'm enrolled in Math 202 this year.
EX: I like math.

"Math" refers to a specific subject, whereas "math" refers to a subject among many subjects; i.e., I like math: Math 202 and Math 101.

I took this from the University of Houston's homepage:

Capitalize academic subjects only when referring to the specific course's full name and number.

Ex: The Literature 2401 class doesn't have enough students in it.

Capitalize only names of academic subjects that relate to languages.

Ex: I studied history last year, but this year I intend to study English.