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

But plenty of people do use mathematics in their lives. Engineers. Financial modellers, quantitive analysts. Doctors have to understand the principles, fluid dynamics etc. children need to be exposed to these principles to stand a chance of getting into these roles. Especially those who aren't spoonfed by parents. I wasnt spoonfed into medicine. They do not need to have them bumped in favour of life admin just because you don't use algebra. This argument is so facile and damaging. If accepted in schools, it would cause huge class divides.

The Poly I'm taking about did indeed convert to a Uni around that time, but carried on doing "adult" education course for some time, where we worked, we continued sending our trainees for accountancy professional level courses throughout the 90s, even though they weren't degree courses. It was where I went for my own accountancy courses in the 80s - externally examined. They stopped all that in the early 00s when they shut everything else down and started ONLY offering degrees. I remember it well because we had a few trainee accountants at work part way through their studies and had to find alternative courses for them which proved incredibly difficult as the next nearest place (which was a college) that previously did accountancy courses had also stopped doing them and was only offering 16-18 year old courses. Personally, I taught AAT accounting at our local college (that was as high as they went) to classes of a mix of adults and school leavers, which was also cancelled when the college stopped offering anything other than 16-18 year old courses - that was 2002!. It was a very gradual erosion of "adult" education over the 90s and 00s as I said.

The Poly converted to a Uni and does nothing like that anymore - all about degrees now (Thanks Blair!).

Polys turned to unis in 1991. That was Thatcher, not Blair.

And there are lots of parents who think teachers are responsibile for party invitations and even arranging play date ones, it's weird

They already do formal letters on English language. They learn to cook basic dishes if they chose to do Food Technology and abusive relationships and peer pressure in PHSE. Other stuff parents should teach. I taught my kids about mortgage payments and led them through buying their first homes, life insurances and pensions.

Whilst most of these things are down to parents to teach, in hindsight, I would have found a lesson or 2 in money management skills and mortgage stuff etc far more helpful than learning algebra which I've no need for.

But I fully understand that it is not down to schools and teachers to teach us all that we need to know.

@RamblingEclectic

I also think we need to encourage on-going, adult education rather than treating primary and secondary schools as the only places people can learn. My local college and adult learning programmes used to run DIY courses and courses on these types of finances, but then austerity meant funding for these types of courses disappeared and they've sadly gone to the wayside.

Fully agree. The 90s and 00s were a terrible time for the dismantling of our World leading adult education system. As you rightly say, there used to be loads of options for adults wanting to learn, whether formal qualifications such as GCSE and A levels, or professional qualifications, such as AAT accounting, or DIY, flower arranging, languages, car maintenance, ski-ing, etc etc., via evening classes. They were done in several places in our small city and nearby towns, at the polytechnic, a few local colleges, even village halls. We used to get a pamphlet through the door which was a directory of all the courses, the locations, durations, costs, etc.

All gone.

All our colleges shut down except one which turned itself into a 16-18 only and does no adult education at all. The Poly converted to a Uni and does nothing like that anymore - all about degrees now (Thanks Blair!). We still have one of the colleges standing empty, as it's never been used since.

But that wasn't "Austerity" - it had all gone before then, like I say, the 90s and 00s when public funding was removed from adult education and channeled into universities instead.

Schools already cover lots of things mentioned There are only so many hours in a day. I do think it’s rather silly to knock using Bunsen burners etc when we need scientists in the world. Just because most of us never touch one again in our life doesn’t mean they are of no use. I’ve never needed to throw a javelin or workout the circumference of a circle but it’s still important that everyone gets an opportunity to learn.

Yes, I agree, IN THEORY with all that. But your child who thrives and gets a good job and lives a fulfilling life through interests etc is paying for the huge numbers of other kids let down by their parents, let down by the education system, who lives a life of unemployment and/or crime, subsidised by taxpayers. That's the point I'm trying to make, that it's a societal problem that so many children aren't leaving school competent to live an adult life. Blaming people is pointless, we should be trying to reduce it happening and dealing with it when it happens.

We've had decades of endowment holders claiming compo for claiming they weren't told the risks of endowments! (When most definitely were).

Also lots of "Waspi" women claiming they weren't told about the pension age being raised (when most definitely were).

The big question is whether such people are just completely unaware and lacking in any kind of intelligence to check things out for themselves or keep themselves up to date, or whether they're deliberately trying it on with sad compo faces.

Trouble is that more and more people won't/can't and that cause societal problems such as long term unemployment, crime, etc that everyone else is paying for.

It wouldn't suprise me to see someone get caught out by interest only mortgages needing a capital repayment and then turning around and blaming teachers for not covering in school.....

Wouldnt it be simpler for the the teachers to annouce next year we will be running a class called 'things we need to teach as parents are too lazy too' parents would be down the school so fast crying how dare they dont they know how hard done by lazy parents are and how the schools need to do everything

Funnily enough, as I read this I remember there was a class in the last year school for the kids that weren't doing all of the exam subjects (or maybe it was an option you could select) which was a life skills type class where they learnt how to write CVs etc. It probably was to prepare them for the real world and for getting a job, unlike the other children who were going on to do more education. I'm probably old, but woodwork, metalwork, cooking, sewing and languages were all classes you took in the first couple of years of school age 13/14/15, which as far as I can tell have now been dropped for more digital technology subjects. So schools definitely are not just doing Shakespeare and keeping up with the times. My little nephew is learnring coding and he's only 13.

At my school a lot of these were covered either directly or indirectly via PSHE, maths, IT and English. A lot of kids simply don't concentrate even if you tell them why they're being taught x/y/z.

Compound interest (for e.g.) is part of the GCSE maths curriculum and during lessons we were told that's how credit cards/debt accrues. I didn't do IT at GCSE but we all were taught basic excel functions. Some kids would moan that they don't like algebra or that what we were building in Excel was a waste of time - be honest OP, were you that type of student?

I do think cooking and nutrition would be a good add since these are skills that aren't necessarily passed down well in families and some families have generations worth of terrible eating habits.

At some point in our adult lives we have to take responsibility for our own deficiencies though - we can't just blame schools or our parents when we have the Internet at our fingertips

There are all parental responsibilities. We did have some basic life skills taught when I was at school 10 years ago, e.g., how to write a job application, cooking classes, basics of mechanics. But it was mostly extra curricular stuff that teachers agreed to do in their free time.

We all figure these things out as and when we need to

Well the people who are good parents might not want the curriculum crammed with unessential items that decent parents should and are doing anyway. I'd be pissed off about this. I want my child to thrive so they can get a good job in the future. I don't want the education system dummed down to the lowest common denominator (which is already starting to happen by the way). Learning isn't always about the content, you are learning how to learn. English versus chemistry are using different parts of your brain, and teaching you different ways to think. Not to mention many if the examples you give are obsolete due to technology, Google, YouTube and the like

We did, 1970's, was called Practical Living.
Everything from wiring plug, writing cheques, even couple of driving lessons.

Or you could parent … and let schools teach the already overcrowded curriculum

YouTube is your friend of you've any intellectual curiosity at all. Much better to learn it as you need it rather than "study" it in school.

Anyway, it's a complete waste of time for those who already have support at home. Since time and resources are limited, would you suggest an academic stream for supported pupils and a basic skills stream for others?

On another thread, a poster wants people reported to social services, for suggesting to leave a child home alone for a week. When she says child.. it's a 17 year old boy 😂

Some kids have no hope at home.

Well not my job as I’m not the manager. But my point was parents should be teaching their kids this.When I was in sixth girl was 16-18, we were told to phone in sick ourselves instead of parents, to learn a sense of independence. Like it’s not hard is it. Most my friends had jobs at that age and at 17 were driving. So no this is Not the schools problem. I mean if you’re old enough to get a job you can answer a phone. We live in a world where we constantly mollycoddle children.

Blimey op were you orphaned as a baby and bought up by wolves in the forest?
Didn't your parents teach you most of these things?