Things you wish they’d taught you in school

[IrishJP]

Inspired by a couple of threads, and recent things that have happened in my life,
What kinds of things do you wish school had taught you that they didn’t?
I feel I learnt a lot of things I’ve never needed, like algebra (although I appreciate that’s relevant in some careers)
But I feel there should’ve been more ‘life’ lessons, that would have been far more useful.

i finished school mid 2000s and don’t have DC so appreciate that schooling may have changed and perhaps some of these things are being taught now.

Heres what I think they should’ve taught.

1. Budgeting and money management
2. information on benefits, tax, NI Contributions, employment rights etc
3. Useful cookery (I learnt to make random fancy dishes but didn’t know how to scramble eggs)
4. Basic DIY (I did some woodwork/metalwork but again made random things like a jigsaw and metal jetting) but couldn’t have put s shelf up or wallpapered a room
5. Everyday sewing (again I did some textiles where we learnt how to tiedye but I couldn’t sew a button on)

The academic side of schooling is absolutely vital but I just feel like there’s some stuff that isn’t needed until you go in to more specialised subjects at a later age, and some very ‘basic’ life skills would be a lot more useful.

Have I missed anything? Or for anyone who does have school aged DC are they teaching these things now?

I can well believe it. But i wonder if the government should see there is an appetite for this and set up some online learning in this area for adults. Like a series of units to do and if you want you can do a test and get a 'level 2 in personal finance' or something.

I went to a highly academic grammar school and we also did all of these things.

Some of really good ideas esp about expanding on periods!
That they can change how you feel, track them, healthy relationships, marriage all wonderful things to teach in phse.

Unfortunately my experience of teachers teaching money management isn't great.
Ideally you would need Martin Lewis in and then for the investment side a specialist from that world but not a salesman.

I've heard isa being taught to young people as somewhere you lock money away and can't access it for a year and Investment spoken with distaste as gambling.

It's so important it should be done properly.

My dds did what was then called needlework (cookery apron, anybody?) for a whole year, but still weren’t taught how to stitch a button on (properly) or turn up a hem.

I’ve shown them more than once, but I’m afraid it’s a case of just CBA.

More practical focus alongside the academic stuff would have been helpful. We obviously did Maths but without the practical stuff about how mortgages, rent, insurance works. Compound interest. Budgeting.

We did Food at GCSE - I got the highest mark! But it didn't teach much that was useful - there was an emphasis on experimenting and evaluating. So we did stuff like what happens if you make scones with white or wholemeal flour? For the exam we did have to plan and make and evaluate a first course for a family of four, including a diabetic but TBH this wasn't very helpful. I have never had to cook for a family of four including a diabetic! And it's easy to produce one meal in isolation for a particular dietary requirement. What would have been better is producing a balanced week's menu plan, within a certain budget, minimising use of the oven and maximising use of leftovers.

More about relationships. I got very little from my parents about how to form and manage relationships, nothing about consent etc. It just wasn't talked about and it meant I was incredibly naive navigating my first relationships with boys which put me at risk. Yes, ideally this is taught by parents, but not all parents have a clue!

This assumes that parents know and are able to teach these things themselves - a massive assumption. I come from a naice middle-class background yet my parents didn't teach me anything like this and, per a PP, I had to learn the hard way, as did several friends. What if you come from a family with poor educational attainment, issues with debt/finances? How can you hope to change that if nobody teaches you a different way?

Yes, you can learn yourself, but that assumes you know there are alternatives.

And the economics of using bloody deliveroo versus making yourself something at home.
On here to steal ideas for after SATS. Obviously as it's 10/11 year olds I can't teach a lot of the things on here, but I see a really good practical project with this- something like order a pizza (how to pay, how not to get scammed online, advantage/disadvantage of paying with credit card/cash, pay via cashback website etc); how much the delivery person is paid, types of contract; rate pizza, then make our own pizzas using shop bought food. Value of being independent, self-reliant, how to cook.
Now here's to hoping we have any PTA money to fund a slice of pizza each and some ingredients..... there could be a good few hours teaching and learning in this :)

I was taught useful sewing and cookery skills at school in the 90s, but that same school stopped teaching the subjects by the late 90s when the teachers retired. Shame, as skills like chopping an onion properly and using a sewing machine have definitely been v useful for me.

Agree with the posters above who say that some of this stuff (eg budgeting, tax, pensions etc) feel so irrelevant to teenagers, they probably wouldn’t really listen even if it was taught. Far better to have adult evening classes to learn about finance - by the time people are in their late 20s they tend to be more interested in learning. To be honest, this could be said for a lot of learning!

I left school in 1999 and we had a version of PHSE lessons, it was called Life and Leisure. We were also taught sewing and how to rewire a plug in primary school.
First year or secondary school we had home economics which was basic food preparation, like how to chop an onion. It then developed into food technology for GCSE.

And as someone said above PE for health and enjoyment rather than endless team games. I eventually found exercise I enjoyed doing in my 30s and it would have been so much better to have tried different types of exercise out at school rather than just endless netball and rounders.

Brilliant - this gives it context in real life, which makes it useful to young people and more likely to stick.

You could also throw in making sure your car/moped is insured for business use if you end up doing a few hours a week as a pizza delivery driver during your A-levels 😁

A huge amount of what is here is taught in schools. The what is a marriage legally is part if the RE exam spec for at least one board. Also tracking cycles. Taught in RE in the Family Life unit, which includes contraception, as is it is natural family planning. Mortgages, interest rates, tax, budgeting, consent, healthy relationships, all definitely taught now. The bias of media i did at school in the 90’s in english language.

lots of what you want taught is taught. And probably was to you too. But if you werent interested at the time, you wouldn't remember now. Even if you were interested at the time would you remember everything you were taught in school now?

education is supposed to give you the skills for life-long learning, so you can research this yourself as adults and know how to find the knowledge you meed. Schools are not in any way capable of giving you every bit of knowledge you will ever need by 16.

If you want to know about something or how to do something right now, why dont you?

Excellent point about skills. Also everything people say above exists already online. And why on earth would a 20 something need lessons on finances? Just go to money supermarket and read the basic guides. If they don't get it still that's more of an indication of lack of numeracy so teaching rote learning on things that may not be relevant as the financial law changes etc seems silly. Barclays life skills courses are free for anyone and teach all the basic stuff. Plus surely this would bore the life out of teens especially those who are bright. I teach pshe and literally years are spent talking about healthy relationships through to sex and marriage from primary all the way through. When they get to 6th form they have forgotten loads of it.
Doesn't mean they were not taught.

Much of the academic stuff I've had no use for, but I seriously could have done with guidance in about every other aspect of life - money, relationships, DIY, gardening, decorating, driving etc etc.
I think there is an agenda, personally.

I also think some things I was taught would now be obsolete and need updating though.
Would love accessible adult training in certain things like how you look for a job now it's all on line.

I think that is a really good idea.

do any banks have this set up?

Budgeting and finance is taught in schools in maths - at least it is in my school. We teach interest rates, bank statements, tax (a simplified version), budgeting, value for money. we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of credit etc.
we used to run a full finance day with an outside company but the kids didn’t engage with it as it wasn’t relevant to them at that very moment in time so they weren’t interested

Yes barclays life skills. Covers interviews and cvs etc too.

interseting - I did vageuly remember seeing some advert
has anyone done it?

I'm glad to hear that some of these things are taught now. At my comprehensive in the 80s the only practical things were wiring a plug and cookery. We had sewing lessons but only 2 machines between 30 of us, so I never actually used one.

I have saved this list - will have ticked off the lot by the time DS is sixteen

I teach Media Studies and we definitely cover bias, media ownership and how this affects content, how companies use social media, censorship and regulation, how media representations affect society’s perceptions etc.

But it’s always written off as a “Mickey Mouse” course…

I left high school in summer 2008 we had PSHE once a week. I cannot remember the topics which we covered in those lessons, but it was a topic a week so it felt very rushed.
We had pastoral care as well, so not too sure why you didn't have these in your school too?

I cannot remember much of what I learnt in high school, so I guess it wasn't that relevant in day to day life.

I think all of these would be useful skills to be taught in school:

First Aid (especially CPR - I'm always shocked when watching ambulance programmes how many of the callers haven't got a clue how to do this)

Personal finance (managing budgets, understanding compound interest in the context of savings and debts).

Useful sewing (replacing a button, hemming trousers, simple repairs, sewing on badges for eg Brownies). Care for textiles including laundry and ironing etc.

Basic cookery skills (including menu planning, balanced diets, cooking on a budget, simple family meals).

Basic DIY skills

Life is education and education is life, the two are inseparable. All of the points IrishJP · Today 08:06, raises can and should form the base from which to learn about real life skills. All of these could be incorporated into a more practical application of maths, science, economics, and even impact on the most important environmental crisis we are facing by reducing waste, by learning to sew and reuse, or repair for another day. We need to be more creative in delivering a curriculum that pushes the boundaries, is creative, inspiring and even enjoyable! Just imagine 😊