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We had a thread about why do schools STILL not want to teach life...whatever that means.
So in this thread I would like to invite people to list (and perhaps discuss) 2 things:
1. Five things they think should be in a "life curriculum"
2. Five things they think some people would want in a "life curriculum" but should NOT be in such a curriculum.
It will be interesting to see if there is any consensus.
The REAL life skills that future cohorts of American students are going to need are things like:
communication skills
problem-solving skills
mastery of technology
creativity
adaptivity
Those are not things you can teach individually in separate defined courses. They are things that should be taught in every course. They are about how you APPLY the skills and knowledge you learn in English, math, and science classes.
I tend to think that the focus on specific things like how to balance a checkbook or invest in a 401(k) are misguided and pointless when you are talking about 15 year-olds. They world is changing fast and the adult world they matriculate into in a decade or so will be vastly different from the one many of us remember from our youth.
1. Balance a budget (balancing a checkbook is really just a metaphor for balancing a budget between income, expense, investment, and debt). And when and where each is appropriate.
2. Understand debt and interest. Seems especially appropriate given the current argument over student loan debt.
3. Basic cooking and household skills such as how to feed themselves and clean up after themselves without someone else to do it.
4. Basic skills with tools and instruments. Someone may not need to know how to plumb a kitchen, but they also need to understand when not to.
5. Logical thinking skills.
I'll add a sixth -- A basic understanding of how government is funded, how taxes are paid, who pays taxes.
These are all things that are fundamental to adulting, regardless of whether one goes to college, trade school, or gets a job. They are essential to independent living and getting out of the parents' basement so to speak.
An individual shouldn't need to master technology, ... if they have sufficient problem-solving skills and adaptability.
My 85 year old mother is extremely creative and has been solving problems her whole life.
Yet her tech skills are disastrous.
The modern workplace is extremely digital and increasingly so. Kids graduating today should be equipped with the skills to step into modern workplaces and that means being a digital native. And no, that doesn't just mean being able to group text and post TikTok's
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Quote:
Originally Posted by texasdiver
My 85 year old mother is extremely creative and has been solving problems her whole life.
Yet her tech skills are disastrous.
The modern workplace is extremely digital and increasingly so. Kids graduating today should be equipped with the skills to step into modern workplaces and that means being a digital native. And no, that doesn't just mean being able to group text and post TikTok's
My 96 YO friend hasn't been to school in 80 yrs (never completed HS ), but... just finished converting his home from PC based to MAC (iOS). Has 5 monitors accessible from his remote, and can show his lifetime accumulation of slides from pics in various formats + merges audio files for presentations.
But my College grad hires cannot compose a comprehensible note from taking a phone call or discussion with a vendor who has a critical work stopage issue.
Equipping HS grads with the equivalent proficiency of a 5th grade education would be a huge plus.
Adding, subtracting, fractions, reading, writing (Spelling!!!) and politely answering and addressing questions from customers.
'Life Curriculum' does not arise from coddling and enabling peer group / age clones. Assigning meaningful responsibility and display of proven results, with significant consequences is a good start. That's not gonna be happening in a current USA Public School. (Though the students and the staff are quite capable), the system and administrators will roadblock and derail any chance of progress and certainly any evidence of positive social progress and personal initiative.
1. Balance a budget (balancing a checkbook is really just a metaphor for balancing a budget between income, expense, investment, and debt). And when and where each is appropriate.
2. Understand debt and interest. Seems especially appropriate given the current argument over student loan debt.
3. Basic cooking and household skills such as how to feed themselves and clean up after themselves without someone else to do it.
4. Basic skills with tools and instruments. Someone may not need to know how to plumb a kitchen, but they also need to understand when not to.
5. Logical thinking skills.
I'll add a sixth -- A basic understanding of how government is funded, how taxes are paid, who pays taxes.
These are all things that are fundamental to adulting, regardless of whether one goes to college, trade school, or gets a job. They are essential to independent living and getting out of the parents' basement so to speak.
I think that's a good list. Balance a budge, balancing a checkbook, income, expenses, investment and a big old focus on student loan debt.
In the mid-70's, I thought home economics were for women who didn't want careers or to accomplish anything outside of the home. Gosh, I was wrong! Unfortunately, these home economics courses has gone the way of the dinosaur.
My kids in Westwood, MA had a life skills course, where they learned how to sew a button on a coat. Amazingly, many kids never knew how before this course. My son had a shop course in a NY middle school. I'm not sure if this is a NY or a national program/requirement.
In NY, students have a civics course for a basic understanding of government.
The student loan debt/interest course should include the parents. Many parents push their kids into student loans.
What's with the obsession with balancing a checkbook?
I have 3 daughters ages 18, 21, and 25. None of them ever bother to balance a checkbook because they don't actually use checks. They have checking accounts linked to ATM/Debit cards and most of the transactions we used to do with actual checks (rent, bills, etc.) are done electronically. My 25 year old daughter who is a marketing executive and makes good money has never owned printed checks. They aren't needed in today's digital world.
All transactions are virtually instant and their banks have phone apps that let them see all their transactions instantly. They can set the account to pay overdrafts via a savings account, or just to not pay any overdrafts in which case the transaction is declined at the cash register.
The main point of balancing a checkbook is so that you know how many outstanding checks you have written that have not been cashed so that you know what your true checking balance is and can avoid writing bad checks. Neither of those two things happens anymore.
Learning how to live within a budget, sure. But balancing a checkbooks is so "boomer" to today's HS students. It isn't something they are ever going to do.
What's with the obsession with balancing a checkbook?
I have 3 daughters ages 18, 21, and 25. None of them ever bother to balance a checkbook because they don't actually use checks. They have checking accounts linked to ATM/Debit cards and most of the transactions we used to do with actual checks (rent, bills, etc.) are done electronically. My 25 year old daughter who is a marketing executive and makes good money has never owned printed checks. They aren't needed in today's digital world.
All transactions are virtually instant and their banks have phone apps that let them see all their transactions instantly. They can set the account to pay overdrafts via a savings account, or just to not pay any overdrafts in which case the transaction is declined at the cash register.
The main point of balancing a checkbook is so that you know how many outstanding checks you have written that have not been cashed so that you know what your true checking balance is and can avoid writing bad checks. Neither of those two things happens anymore.
Learning how to live within a budget, sure. But balancing a checkbooks is so "boomer" to today's HS students. It isn't something they are ever going to do.
You're being way too literal. It doesn't necessarily mean a physical checkbook but balancing your accounts vs expenses. Could be a bank account or a credit card or any form of transaction. It's both about knowing how much money you have, and can therefor afford, and about knowing if a transaction posted correctly and/or if someone has gotten your number.
Then there is knowing what you spend, what you spend it on, and what you can afford to keeping to a budget.
You're being way too literal. It doesn't necessarily mean a physical checkbook but balancing your accounts vs expenses. Could be a bank account or a credit card or any form of transaction. It's both about knowing how much money you have, and can therefor afford, and about knowing if a transaction posted correctly and/or if someone has gotten your number.
Then there is knowing what you spend, what you spend it on, and what you can afford to keeping to a budget.
Don't confuse the medium with the skillset.
So budgeting then, not balancing checkbooks.
My kids all learned that fairly easily without having to take a class in it during middle school or high school in lieu of an elective that they would rather have taken. Actual life has a way of quickly teaching you lessons.
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), but... just finished converting his home from PC based to MAC (iOS). Has 5 monitors accessible from his remote, and can show his lifetime accumulation of slides from pics in various formats + merges audio files for presentations.
