general Do you feel school does enough adult training?

[ManaMinori 4,145]

In your opinion, do schools do enough to prepare students for adult life? Paying bills, taxes, bank deposits/ withdraws, job interviews and training, job ettiquite, social skills, explaining credit scores, insurance, home management (repairs, tools, decor)

 

Do YOU know how to do adult things? (And do them well)

[Lisa 5,553]

I think a lot of those things are something a parent should teach.

[Discordian 6,015]

Less than 1% of anything I learned in school can be applied to my life. Doesn't help that I had no career in mind.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Less than 1% of anything I learned in school can be applied to my life. Doesn't help that I had no career in mind.

nice. So 99% of what you were taught is in no way beneficial to real life

 

Why are teachers getting paid, exactly, if not teaching life skills?

[Invincible 2,091]

Not in the slightest. School (and by this I mean highschool and before) teaches you absolutely nothing of the sort (at least it didn't teach ME anything).

 

You finish school, leave home then BAM - welcome to the real world. I learned everything I need to get by from my parents, and I still run into troubles sometimes, so it's always good to have your family to depend on for good advice, but this isn't something I acquired from school.

[Hocus Pocus 636]

 

This is pretty much my opinion on the subject. I mean, sure, a lot of what we learn in school is important, but it's only important for certain degrees. Everything else is merely trivial. These topics should be brought up, but if we're most likely not going to need to know it, we should have the choice of whether or not we personally should pursue further knowledge.

[Venomous 18,862]

I honestly don't think that schools teach enough of the basics.

I think that every high school should have a life 101 class where they teach students how to do things like change tires, tie a tie, sew a button, etc. etc.

[RattPitt 172]

Almost.

 

I have a class called Adult Living that teaches this kind of stuff. You know, how to pay bills, credit card information, insurance, etc. Do I think it's effective? Not at all. At least, not with my teacher. On a good day, only about 25% of the class is actually working. The rest of the class is usually her talking about something that's somewhat relevant. I wish that was an exaggeration.

 

Honestly, I think 90% of what I've been learning in school for the past 5 years is social skills. I usually get most of my knowledge from the internet.

[Malinter 3,064]

Getting drunk, crashing cars, making bad relationship decisions, spending more than you earn...

 

They teach these things? I thought they just came naturally to people... 

 

[Cactus 155]

Personally, my high school did have a very informative class that covered a lot of "adult training." I definitely think more schools should do that as well. Public speaking should be a common class throughout school.

[Discordian 6,015]

nice. So 99% of what you were taught is in no way beneficial to real life

 

Why are teachers getting paid, exactly, if not teaching life skills?

I wouldn't say it's entirely unimportant. Having more information is always better than less. It just turns out that most of it equates to random trivia, rather than having a grasp of any particular subject.

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,302]

I think for many of us, attending school largely prepares us for...  Attending school.  I learned CPR (or, at least, how to perform CPR on a dummy), how to check myself for testicular cancer, and how to fill out a check in a class called Life Management.  As far as I'm concerned, that's some of the more applicable-to-life type stuff I learned during my later adventures in public school.  But dammit, I've not once had the opportunity to resuscitate a mannequin.

[InfectedPone 1,549]

I've learnt about lots of financial stuff in commerce, but that's an elective so not many people actually get the knowledge. Apart from that we are taught many life skills in certain classes and I feel that I'm better prepared for the future because of it.

[Megas 27,551]

lol no, anything I actually needed to learn in life I either learned through my parents, personal experience, separate classes all together

 

I think this picture pretty much sums it up

 

[simba86 1,541]

they teach you history , math, reading, ect. and stuff like reading and math are things you really need to know how to do to make it in life. but as far as teaching common sense , how to shop for deals , not get scammed , how to think for yourself and make decisions, how to get insurance or a job and paying taxes and finances in general they really do not teach. in other words they teach you how to do math and how to read but they don't teach you how to be an adult and apply it to everyday life. they make you book smart not street smart

[GeekySonic 1,150]

Our FACS class teaches us stuff like cooking, home management, child raising, and sanitation. Our Ag class teaches us how to operate machinery and build things. Our Accounting class teaches us how to manage money.

 

Other than that, the stuff we learn here is pretty useless, and it's not enough to get people going on the right track. The students at my school who have a plan have been planning what to study at which college for years.

 

I don't even think I'm going to college. I would be happy if I had my minimum wage job at our grocery store for the rest of my life.

[Koukatsu 5,899]

I've only used one thing in life outside of school, that I learned in school. And it was common sense to me before it was taught.

Balancing a checkbook.

"Learned" that in the 6th grade, but I was already keeping one for chore money and grade money anyway. So I was just like <___<

 

Wasted time learning cursive, last I heard it's no longer even taught??? Thanks, public schools, you're doin' great. /sarcasm.

 

The only other thing I learned in school was the day I took a 360 to an English class, and this other kid kicked guitar hero up to hard. Then I learned how to play on hard. Really nothing to do with school, other than the "where."

[Guest]

They definitely do not. We need to teach kids paying bills, taxes, how insurance works, general car problems and a lot of the other almost daily worries about being a shitty adult.

[----- 477]

Ahahahah ~

 

Definitely not. My parents told me all I know about adult life or I have to figure it out myself. 

Edited January 14, 2016 by Fluidty

[ARagY 1,152]

Hahahahaha.

No.

 

School doesn't teach you how to do taxes, how to manage your investments, how to address employers, how to fill out a résumé or dine with your boss, how to manage an 8-5, how to deal with maternity, ANYTHING WHATSOEVER that would help the hypersexualisation problem, how to properly refute arguments, how to be respectful, how to dress for success, how to file an insurance claim, how to deal with jury duty, the economic future, how to get a loan, how to write a check, how to open a bank account, how to calculate your interest earnings, anything about the stock market, any specialised skills and more than an elementary understanding of any topic that interests you. 

 

There are more, so many more, that I've had to learn on my own. Like how to cook, how to not get poisoned, nutrition stuff, the true cost of a car, the true cost of being in the hospital, the true cost of your education, the housing market, etc.

Edited January 14, 2016 by ARagY

[PiratePony 8,475]

The idea behind school is to create a populace of citizens with knowledge about basic reading, writing, math, arts, physical education, history, etc. Basic knowledge that should benefit people as a society.

 

However, certain classes that used to be basic are often ignored. Home Economics used to be mainly for girls, and were ditched because it was a "girl class."  What I think, would have made more sense...bring men in the home economics classes, so it's truly a class for all.

 

My economics class was taught by a teacher who really instilled balancing checkbooks, paying bills, how interest bearing loans work, working the systems to your advantage -- all the stuff that inspired me to do well in the finance area of our household.

 

Home economics though I was taught because of my mom who was a stay-at-home mom & housewife and as an only child who didn't go out an socialize much, I helped around the house. Low and behold those skills greatly helped me when fate turned me from a public school teacher to a stay-at-home dad & house husband. So many people I know that are my age, or even older, don't know how to cook a single food, sew a button, hem a dress or pantline or other house related activities such as that. It makes people reliable on others and spend a lot of money otherwise, instead of doing simple things for themselves. I can't imagine how much money is spent by those who eat out every meal.

 

Also, so many people don't know how to change a tire, jump start a car, fix a squeaky door (WD-40 fixes all), general woodworking. I learned this things through my theatre teacher of all people. 

 

So, although I feel all of the core subjects in school are important, a little bit of emphasis should be swayed from passing reading and math tests and onto:

 

Several semesters of home economics. That includes cooking, clothing repair, house management, bookkeeping, finance, loans and interests, and basically a crash course on being a grown up in the grown up world.

 

I'm also a big proponent of high schoolers getting summer jobs, or part-time jobs to get them ready to exist as an adult, save for college and start a portfolio of interest yielding accounts, and not just be the grade levels between middle school and college. 

 

Combine all of these in school, and you have students who have the skills to live as adults.

 

-PiratePony, M.Ed. 

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

I remember one of the earlier physics modules at GCSE (so I took it when I was around 15, I think) included handy things like wiring a plug, and I found that studying statistics has been incredibly useful in later life; not even because it relates to a job - just understanding what people mean when they use statistical terms... and when people abuse statistics to support their argument. Throw in a bit of German and at least a vague understanding of how rugby is played and I think the schools I went to did a fairly good job.

 

As for more general skills, many of these are rather intangible, and the study-test approach that characterises (most) schools might not be the best format. I think (with no justification whatsoever, let me be clear.) Perhaps having a few classes on these subjects and getting an overview of a student's skill in various that can be reported to the student's parents to help guide them in raising their child ('xyz is good at cooking but struggles to understand the concept of debt', for example.) That does leave it in the parents' (or parent's as the case may be) hands but you can't learn everything at school - learning to learn is the really important bit (I think. English, maths and these days IT are kind of vital as well.)

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Hahahahaha.

No.

 

School doesn't teach you how to do taxes, how to manage your investments, how to address employers, how to fill out a résumé or dine with your boss, how to manage an 8-5, how to deal with maternity, ANYTHING WHATSOEVER that would help the hypersexualisation problem, how to properly refute arguments, how to be respectful, how to dress for success, how to file an insurance claim, how to deal with jury duty, the economic future, how to get a loan, how to write a check, how to open a bank account, how to calculate your interest earnings, anything about the stock market, any specialised skills and more than an elementary understanding of any topic that interests you. 

 

There are more, so many more, that I've had to learn on my own. Like how to cook, how to not get poisoned, nutrition stuff, the true cost of a car, the true cost of being in the hospital, the true cost of your education, the housing market, etc.

I'm so tempted to ask why schools even exist, if NONE of this is taught to students, to prepare them for the real world. So tempted....

[PiratePony 8,475]

I'm so tempted to ask why schools even exist, if NONE of this is taught to students, to prepare them for the real world. So tempted....

 

Like I said, it's for general broad knowledge of everything from basic subjects to arts. Plus reading and writing correctly is a very important skill to have in life.

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

I have no idea how to pay taxes, so I'll give you that one. I've never needed to know how to pay taxes, because I'm a senior level college student with no job. Even if I have a paid internship, I wouldn't work enough hours to make enough money to need to do my own taxes. My parents do that. When I get a full time job, I'll ask them for help doing it. It can't possibly be anything more difficult than anything I've done in MATLAB.

 

Registering to vote literally takes like two minutes. Go online, print out a form, fill it out, mail it to your county's board of elections, and they'll take care of the rest. A lesson on this in school would be utterly pointless. The better question is, why is it that you have to register to vote if you're already enrolled in an American public school? Ideally, the process should be automatic.

 

Political parties are something that every American should know just by living here. That's also covered in history classes, where we spent what was seriously half a year talking about the federalist and anti-federalist parties during the olden days of the Articles of Confederation. What each modern political party stands for shouldn't be left up to a teacher to teach. Most teachers are biased one way or the other, and aren't going to give good information about the views of the party they disagree with. As such, students need to be proactive in seeking out information about the parties' platform, and make choices based on that. Or, perhaps, political parties should be better at reaching out to students to explain their views.

 

I learned how to write a resume, and if I remember correctly, I had to do it on three different occasions before I graduated high school. Actually, maybe it was four. I thought it was a waste of time, because to me, it seemed too simple. It is simple. Beyond "this is what a resume is, and this is what it should look like," there's no need to spend weeks and weeks of class time on that.

 

Writing checks is, again, pretty simple. Write the date here, write the person or company's name here, write the amount here, and sign here. And besides, most of the paying most of us do is online, anyway. I've written no more than three checks in the past three years. Going over that in class would have been a waste of time. If you know how to read and you know how to sign your name, it shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Balancing a checkbook isn't even necessary anymore. For pretty much any bank account you have, you're going to be able to view your balance online. Even if you can't, it's a pretty simple math problem. If you have a thousand dollars in your account, add two hundred more, and then buy three items worth one hundred, you obviously have nine hundred left. This is... third or fourth grade math. Opening a checking account isn't that difficult, either. All you have to do is go to a bank and tell them you'd like to open an account. They'll do all the work for you and tell you what you need to do.

 

How student loans work is something that is different for the type of loan you're getting and where you're going to school. Since not everyone goes to college, there will still be some students complaining that "this isn't useful to me!" I remember being overwhelmed by FAFSA and all that my freshman year, so I think being taught how loans and financial aid works could be helpful to some people like me. But that should be something that they teach you when you're already at college.

 

How to jump start a car? Well, if you bought jumper cables, don't they come with instructions to tell you how to do it? So, what you really need is basic literacy skills. That is what they teach in school.

 

Most students aren't going to graduate high school and have enough money to buy a house or a car. Very few people today under the age of 35 can afford to buy their own home, but let's just say it's that age. When you're 35 and purchasing a home, do you really think you're going to remember anything you were taught when you were 17 or 18? I kinda doubt it. I don't think that knowledge would be too useful, because most of us would forget it in a couple years, anyway.

 

Ultimately, from this I get the impression that some people want everything spoon-fed to them, and can't bear the thought of taking the initiative to go learn something on their own. I personally think schools should have fewer lessons structured in the form of "This is how you [do a thing]" and more in the form of "You're going to need to [do a thing]. Can you figure out how to do it?"

 

The way I see it, if you can work autonomously to sift through the internet and your local library for information, determine what's true and what's not, take what's important in that, and report your findings in a ten-page research paper, then you should easily be able to figure out how to change a tire on a car or read your bank statement. If you're equipped with sufficient critical thinking skills and the ability to read and write and communicate effectively with others, you don't need to be taught how to do every little thing.

 

In essence, it's kind of like most people want to be told, "this is where you fish, this is what time you fish, and this is the kind of bait that you use to fish with." But that's not how the school system works, and that's not how it should work. If you know instead, for example, that a certain species of fish likes warm, shallow water, they like grass, and they feed off of creatures on the bottom, you can figure out not just how to fish, but why certain techniques work and why others don't. You'll be able to find not just the best place to fish, but other places which may be just as good, if not better.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Admiral Regulus