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I fully agree that life skills should be taught by parents, not school.
Now what school could do better is teaching better abstract concepts, such as improving the overall understanding of mathematics or calculus, physics... and language skills (expression, vocabulary, philosophy...). Those concepts are not directly applicable to "life" as life skills but they contribute to ease the assimilation of courses in the university and also help to reach higher grades, and, by extension, better jobs in fine.
The education system cannot make up what families used to provide.
Families teach the life skills to their kids. Families teach them how to cook, sew, open a bank account, etc.
Schools provide the academic foundation so that society doesn't become illiterate.
As someone else posted..you have your family for 18 years and you have a class/teacher for 10 months.
A 10 month class on home ec is not the same as learning this at home over years and years.
Schools cannot make up for what families aren't teaching their kids anymore.
The education system cannot make up what families used to provide.
Families teach the life skills to their kids. Families teach them how to cook, sew, open a bank account, etc.
Schools provide the academic foundation so that society doesn't become illiterate.
As someone else posted..you have your family for 18 years and you have a class/teacher for 10 months.
A 10 month class on home ec is not the same as learning this at home over years and years.
Schools cannot make up for what families aren't teaching their kids anymore.
Yes indeed. They only need to do that part much better!
As a young teen, my Lessons Learned about Life Skills (at home):
1) I asked mom for money to buy "whatever". She replied she didn't have enough money. I told her, "You have blank checks, just write a check!" Next thing I knew, she was teaching me about checking accounts and even how to balance the check book. That was the last time I told her to 'just write a check'.
2) I got angry and stated that I was moving out! Mom said, "Ok honey, where will you live?" I informed her I'd get an apartment. Before that session was over I learned exactly how much it would cost to rent an apartment, pay for utilities, food, health costs, clothing. . . and then she included how to get a job and pay for my own car, maintenance, gasoline, insurance.
Mom taught me the realities of life. . . . thank you Mom!!
My parents taught me nothing about money or finances. Neither did my school. My spouse's parents didn't teach about money either. I'm sure that we are not alone in having parents who didn't do their job.
i remember going from middle school, that would be junior high to some, in florida, to high school in alabama and got one of the biggest shots of my life, instead of learning, everybody wass just smoking pot when ever they could. now you going say , what the big deal, well with everybody stone, they had to dumb down the classes just so half would pass. This hurt those that was clean and sober that wanted to learn. so now today those dopeheads are still smoking dope doing dumb thing. Here the kicker, that was over 35 years ago. and i still see it in society. instead of having entry level college, high school graduate. I see those yo can tell smoke dope all their lives.
no some body going to reply that they can smoke if hey want to, its not hurting anybody but themselves. yea you kinda right, but its robbing the intelligence of the community, and as a group of entry level employee, they too stupid to survive.
Quite a few jumped on the OP's premise which isn't surprising. Any opportunity to criticize is often welcome by a segment of society. I learned about finance at home and it has helped me tremendously in adult life. I didn't apply myself so much in high school other than being interested in increasing my vocabulary which has carried through to now, but I'm sure I learned a few other things things. I did learn a lot in college.
I learned how to write and supported myself at one time by being capable of writing informative reports to attorneys.
In a recent thread about IQ, a sizable group claim a high number, surely those people did well in college.
My oldest granddaughter hated high school and I thought her children would suffer, but turns out she was very involved with their schooling and so far three of her four children are collage graduates.
Here are a few of my criticisms at the K-12 level:
The onus on the the student to learn has been replaced by the onus on the teacher to teach.
Too many cooks spoil the stew. The wrong people have the decision-making power.
A move away from basic skills and the introduction of social conditioning.
The idea that more money makes better schools and that children need "things" in order to be good students.
The notion that every child needs to be prepared for college.
Allowing arts and sports to take precedence over reading, writing, math and science. I would like to see these subjects taken out of schools and moved to a community setting.
I won't defend American primary and secondary education. However, as a well-educated professional in a technical field, I have aways found that my American colleagues are far more creative, inventive and curious than my foreign-educated colleagues who tend to work "by the numbers".
Honestly I can't think of a single life skill I learned by graduating HS and i grew up in NY NJ MD IL Nothing applicable like a basic finance course, basic course on nutrition. It's no wonder our most lucrative industries have to compete with people from the third world like India routinely. Our education system is HORRIBLE. It doesn't engender any practical or theoretical skills, critical thinking, rhetoric.z
I can't htink of how much better our country would be off we if taught hard or technical skills in high school and put as much emphasis on them as the humanities.
What, you think other countries teach these things in school as well?
The US education system is great, the best in the world, people from all over the world try to get into our universities, and most parents would do about anything to get their kids enrolled in a US high school as well.
Just because there is a sizable group of students who do not take advantage of what is offered, thus cause a dip in rankings, does not mean the education system is not great. You can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
The only reason there is competition is because of labor costs, nothing more. You would see how quickly this solves itself if the immigrant worker actually held the visa instead of the company. It is not like the h1b worker can just go look for work like a citizen or something, nor negotiate the salary like one. The company holds the visa, thus has leverage over the worker which results in the worker working for less salary than what the market actually demands. This is why companies are pushing to allow more h1b's.
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