Hoping that things have changed since I was at school. I hated school. Perhaps because it was an all girls school so was incredibly bitchy and full of hormonal girls. I have friends who went to mixed schools and they were never as boy obsessed as me because they were just so used to them always being in their day-to-day lives. I truly believe that alone let me down. I started college and was a bit like...oh...BOYS!
Any way, back to the curriculum - my eldest will be starting soon and I'm wondering what to expect. Not so much what to expect in primary school but senior school.
I can imagine that many people will have other opinions on what I am about to point out here - but this is just how I feel.
Algebra, King Henry VIII's wives names, going to box hill in the freezing arse cold freezing our tits off to measure some grass (literally)... I mean, I have an ENDLESS LIST OF SHIT that I had to endure throughout my time at school. I would go as far as saying that the vast majority of what I 'learnt' was bollocks and I have never, ever used/needed to remember it.
Basic maths - absolutely. (In fact, wish they would have focused on basic math more than all those impossible mathematical equations etc, as basic math is what we use day to day, right?)
Basic science - absolutely.
English Lit & Lang - absolutely.
The rest of the subjects - yes to a certain extent, but in my honest opinion should be minimised. I could have really benefitted from things such as:
- Career choices (and I don't mean the one-time hour career choices class we sat through in year 11 when we were about to leave, absolutely clueless as of what to do next - I mean, in depth informative career options - delving into the potential job opportunities out there, along with information on different industries. Starting from say, Year 9/10.
- Classes on wellbeing (not just mental health, but the importance of self care, how to deal with big feelings, certain and specific situations, educating kids on social media - in fact, social media should be heavily taught about considering the amount of time kids spend on it).
- Credit ratings (my DP screwed himself over for 6 years due to an unpaid parking fine aged 18) and things like budgeting and the value of money. I remember blowing each and every payslip when I started working - do you know why? I NEVER knew I could buy a house. Not from a wealthy family and assumed it was only for the mega rich - we were never taught in school about these sorts of possibilities.
- Similarly to the above - debts and importance of credit & credit cards
Again, I could go on and on and on. Like I said, I really don't feel as though I got much out of my time at school. I started to learn once I got my first full time job aged 17. I was thrown into an adult only environment. It was client facing and I had no choice but to grow up, learn on the job and become a woman. I loved it and thank goodness - because even college taught me zilch.
I just hope things have changed - or will do in the future at least. I hope kids are still not sat learning about how to draw a circle with a compass and leaving clueless, lost, spending every penny they get, depressed over social media and not knowing what is actually out there for them to achieve.
As much as parents should be helping to teach their kids my above list, schools should too, in my opinion.