To think schools should have a class to teach basic life skills

What if they don’t though?

It took me a while to work out what ‘HTH’ meant.
For a second I wondered if it was ‘hold the horse’.

Thus making it acceptable to be a dopey parent because someone else will pick up the slack.

Stuff I mainly learned as an adult: budgeting and managing money; how to book travel arrangements; most dishes I now cook on the regular - and I cooked a lot with my parents, just prefer different foods; changing fuses and fixing household appliances; most DIY; world geography; how to spot wrong-uns (parents were a good model of a healthy relationship, but that was not very useful in spotting predatory abusers); an appreciation of poetry; Spanish; when to see the GP, change GPs, find an NHS dentist; how to rid a house of vermin; how to de-louse hair. Youtube videos have been game-changing!

You don't stop learning when you get your GCSEs or A-levels. You continue to educate yourself and fill in the gaps.

But they do teach healthy food options and food tech in schools already….

Most of that is covered.

Funnyily enough 15yos don't retain their 2 hour lesson on mortgages and compound interest until they need it at 25+.

In the 90s we did all this in a mandatory lesson called ‘Diploma of achievement’ in 6th form. We did it instead of general studies. I hated it at the time! As well as the things you’ve mentioned learnt to budget, do basic checks on a car, change a tyre, wire a plug, write a CV and formal letter

That's what parents should be doing. It's getting ridiculous really, as well as everything else schools even have to teach children to brush their teeth now because parents aren't taking responsibility.

I was taught how to rewire a plug in physics on 1994.
I have yet to wire a plug. Watched my mum do it a lot.
I was also taught about sound conduction and the best place to stand at gigs. Now that, I have used.
I was taught, in 1995 in gcse maths, about compound interest. But I was motivated in adulthood by a fear of having no money and being in debt.

I learned to cook, sew, garden, change light bulbs at home. I know how to budget, but I've always been a bit haphazard, if I'm honest. But I do live in absolute fear of being without. Being mocked for having your mum make your clothes goes a long way.

Many kids reckon what I teach is useless (we already speak English, so what's the point? Why do do we need to know macbeth?)
But actually, I'm teaching them to critically analyse the written word; develop empathy and write coherently (and with flair, if I'm lucky). Often, they complain that they want to learn basic skills.
But let's face it, they'd soon moan that it was too basic. And they wouldn't listen anyway.

I suppose it's all very well saying 'the parents should teach it', but I'm fairly sure there are some parents who don't know that a loan isn't free money.

But would agree it's hard to teach as people come from such different baselines that it would be hard to pitch at the right level for everyone.

That's why anyone with just a smidgen of intelligence takes the old bulb out first to check the fitting. How hard can it be?

Yes! I have thought for a long time that something like ‘home economics’ should be brought back, no boy girl split obviously but life skills and lessons. I think for some, that would be more valuable than anything else.

What exactly do you think parents are for OP?

Also, you don’t learn to use Bunsen burners at school for the sake of making fire, they’re used to carry out educational and worthwhile experiments.

The point is I agree with op as a kid I was brought up on freezer meals had no idea about money management and was just generally clueless. I think its unfair that some kids start of their adult lives completely disadvantaged because parents can't or won't teach them basic life skills

The world doesn’t end there, if you buy the wrong lightbulb you go back out and order the correct one. Then you change the lightbulb.

Does anyone remember that programme on channel 4 years ago, about going back in time at school? They demonstrated life skills were taught at school, along with normal classes. Although this was split by gender, with girls learning hospital corners etc.

It’s not so much that I think school should teach these skills, but should integrate to be part of the everyday. Like in Japan, where the children are responsible for cleaning the tables, sweeping the floor and tidying up. At lunch they help serve and clean up.

So cleaning and maintaining the classroom environment, will be reinforcing these skills that they should be using at home too.

"Children deserve more than Shakespeare or how to play football in pe. They deserve a kick start to life"

Indeed, Children deserve Parents.

Or parents could do it.

Only if they know how to do it in the first place.

I showed my dad how to wire a plug as I'd learnt how to in physics. He could teach me all about bank accounts and budgeting, but he couldn't even check the oil in a car (my mum used to do it). Some parents can't cook for toffee, and some can't even spell mortgage. It's not the kid's fault if their parents aren't great at everything.

Surely you don't expect parents to any more than copulate?

Hard to believe you're serious. No, that's the parents' job.

I remember having this conversation with my DS when he was about 14 years old (about 15 years ago). He said exactly what you were saying. He felt that school had a duty to spend an hour a week on life skills of the kind that you are talking about.

When I was at school in 1970's we all did Domestic Science. We learned how to feed a family on 8oz of mince (involved padding meal out with lentils & chopped or grated veg), bread making, various forms of pastry (which included what to do with the left over bits such as making cheese straws or fruit savouries for lunch boxes) etc. But we learned about food groups, budgeting (including how compound interest worked), household hygiene etc. But I'd have liked to have learned how to put a shelf up, basic car maintenance, basic plumbing skills etc. But Teacher Google has proved immensely helpful on that front.

Well, first you have to buy the new lightbulb. And if you follow your own instructions, you are very likely to come back with a screw in bulb (of random wattage) and then find that your socket is a bayonet one.

One of the many ways you can not change a lightbulb.....

Do parents expect to do ANYTHING these days?

This. Maybe teachers should do everything. Actually why not get them to do the pregnancy and labour - they haven’t got anything better to do.