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Gosh, I hope some parents besides my husband and I are teaching their kids this stuff. My parents surely taught me most of this and rest I learned as I went. Isn't that sort of the fun of growing up? Learning by doing?
Parents are responsible for educating their children. In our society, parents can utilize tax supported, compulsory (forced), government schools with a lot of those education tasks.
I was reading the thread titled "Job search education should be a requirement in school" when it dawned on me: Some of the courses taught in high school are not going to provide the average student with much he or she can really use in life. (Trig for example. Unless you end up working in one of the few fields which require those sort of calculations, really, what use is it?)
On the other hand, ALL students will eventually need to learn some basic skills in their lives-- everything from effectively seeking employment to understanding food labels. But unfortunately, most schools don't offer courses in these important things.
So I propose a mandatory class for all students called "Life Skills". I have here a brief outline of some of the main topics that could be part of the course study:
(first quarter), Learning to Work: creating resumes, applying/interviewing for a job, common job expectations, promotions, payroll issues, talking to your boss, work behavior, leaves of absence, jury duty, unemployment compensation, retirement...
(second quarter), Health Matters: nutrition, meal planning, reading food labels, coping with illness, family planning, parenting skills, understanding medical forms, basic OTC drugs, how to talk to your doctor, basic first aid...
(third quarter), The Business of Life: banking, applying for credit, life insurance, investing, bankrupcy, filing taxes, wills and estates, renting an apartment, mortgages,...
(fourth quarter), Safety & Maintenance: fire safety, emergency preparation, basic home maintenance, basic auto maintenance, CPR, home protection, basic self-defense techniques...
Granted, SOME of the topics listed might be covered in other classes, such as Home Economics, Shop, Health, Business, etc. But those kinds of classes are usually electives, not mandatory.
My proposal is that every student should be taught these basic skills of life. Think of all the advantages this would bring to each and every person as they begin to find their way through this big, complicated world of ours.
I was reading the thread titled "Job search education should be a requirement in school" when it dawned on me: Some of the courses taught in high school are not going to provide the average student with much he or she can really use in life. (Trig for example. Unless you end up working in one of the few fields which require those sort of calculations, really, what use is it?)
On the other hand, ALL students will eventually need to learn some basic skills in their lives-- everything from effectively seeking employment to understanding food labels. But unfortunately, most schools don't offer courses in these important things.
So I propose a mandatory class for all students called "Life Skills". I have here a brief outline of some of the main topics that could be part of the course study:
(first quarter), Learning to Work: creating resumes, applying/interviewing for a job, common job expectations, promotions, payroll issues, talking to your boss, work behavior, leaves of absence, jury duty, unemployment compensation, retirement...
(second quarter), Health Matters: nutrition, meal planning, reading food labels, coping with illness, family planning, parenting skills, understanding medical forms, basic OTC drugs, how to talk to your doctor, basic first aid...
(third quarter), The Business of Life: banking, applying for credit, life insurance, investing, bankrupcy, filing taxes, wills and estates, renting an apartment, mortgages,...
(fourth quarter), Safety & Maintenance: fire safety, emergency preparation, basic home maintenance, basic auto maintenance, CPR, home protection, basic self-defense techniques...
Granted, SOME of the topics listed might be covered in other classes, such as Home Economics, Shop, Health, Business, etc. But those kinds of classes are usually electives, not mandatory.
My proposal is that every student should be taught these basic skills of life. Think of all the advantages this would bring to each and every person as they begin to find their way through this big, complicated world of ours.
And why should kids who already know these things be forced to take this class? Health and civics (already mandatory in my state) cover a large number of the topics.
So why should kids not be allowed to take an elective like trig or calculus or whatever may help them get into college not be allowed to, especially if they already know most of those things?
The group of people it would benefit (those who do not know these things AND choose not to take those electives that cover it) is much smaller than those who would lose out.
Judging by some of the "skills" that a lot of today's children have, I think more reading and correct English skills would be a good idea.
I know a lot of us think that courses like Trig are a waste of time. However, this sort of course, (math) teaches the student how to think to solve problems. Most could get on in life if all they could do was count on their fingers. But math courses, no matter how useless they seem, do get the student to think in an orderly manner.
AND....if a person grows up, has children, the day will come when they are faced with having to face a child and admit that, "yes, it was hard, and I hated it. But I did it anyway."
It all comes down to "what is the purpose of the public education system"--a question that hasn't been answered. Is it to prepare for jobs? Or create a minimum level of educated citizen? Or to completely replace the role of the parent, paying an army of school teachers a fortune to do what parents should be expect to do for their own offspring? I'd say the second of these, and at a cost of about 1/10 of what we pay today. The first thing we can do is NOT pay teachers full time, for a job that requires half the hours of a traditional job, and 1/4 of the hours of a modern day corporate job that pays an equal amount.
Our public education system has been flooded with huge amounts of money as society fell for the "anything for the children!" ideology. It amazes me how much money is spent on "fluff" classes (our local high school has an entire wing dedicated to sewing), an over-compensated education bureaucracy (have you seen the Taj Mahal school admin building in West Palm Beach FL, built with taxpayer-funded bonds that were supposed to go to "better" education for kids?), and ridiculous waste (do high schools need to cost $60 million and be creatively designed by architects, to provide a decent education"?). We seem to have totally forgotten that more money does NOT increase academic achievement. In fact, a national study that came to this undeniable conclusion was well known when I was in college, and yet has virtually disappeared today--since it proved the opposite of what the educational bureaucracy wants.
Frankly, wasting huge amounts on an educational bureaucracy that primarily entertains children is a joke when we leave the multi-trillion dollar debt for government overspending, for our children and grandchildren to pay off. They'll have no jobs or hope for a decent life, and the dollar will be worthless, and their taxes will be massive and wipe out any wealth they may try to accumulate, but no matter what the local school system wants this year, "IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!" We spoil them rotten on one hand, but sabotage their entire future. They won't be happy when they realize what their future holds.
When I grew up here in southern NH in the 1960s and 1970s, the school system was excellent and both myself and my spouse could not have done better, anywhere, at any price. We both sometimes are called to be guest professors in technical subjects at local universities. Public education at that time was NOT ridiculously expensive, and you could retire here with a paid-off home and expect to be able to handle the property taxes. Those days are long gone. Unless you have a lucrative pension, NOBODY could retire here today, even with a paid-off home. The property taxes on an average house are often more than the net income from a full-time job.
What have we gained by pouring all this extra money into education? Nothing, other than increased entertainment for students. What have we lost? The ability to retire in a house you have already bought and paid off, if you either retire or lose one of the household's jobs.
It's wrong, and it has to end. Considering that well-paying jobs are permanently gone from our economy, we need to transition to a lower cost of living for everyone, or we'll all lose everything we've spent our whole lives working for.
Are you freaking kidding me? Schools seem to be struggling with teaching math, grammar, history, science, and foreign languages. Now you want them to teach our kids how to balance a checkbook and to actually fill out a job application?
Are you freaking kidding me? Schools seem to be struggling with teaching math, grammar, history, science, and foreign languages. Now you want them to teach our kids how to balance a checkbook and to actually fill out a job application?
I teach it everyday in my class....why is that so hard to believe? And yes, we teach math, grammar, history, science and foreign languages. Perhaps I teach in a school where parents and teachers care more than most, because by your comment, you make it sound like there isn't a school in the country that teaches these things. We do it very well; and yes, I feel very fortunate that my kids go to school where they do.
Many of us in education have been talking about these issues for years (almost 30 in my case) but us classroom folks are aren't listened to. In some cases we're accused of trying to "make our jobs easier", in others of racism. Upper management doesn't listen nor do school boards. They don't get headlines for instituting life skills classes but for numbers of kids taking the SAT or AP tests. As a result those skills are infused (educo-babble for included) in other classes.
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