AIBU to say they should NOT teach it in schools

[Calvinlookingforhobbs]

‘It’ being any problem that appears in our society... budgeting for adults, healthy eating, parenting skills, contraception, gardening, etc surely education and parenting are different?

I am laughing at the idea that teachers should routinely teach budgeting and other finance issues. I teach Economics and the number of times I've been asked for advice on pensions, car loans, savings etc. We would (collectively) need some training...

gluteustothemaximus I have images of people - in place of contraception - yelling "Get thee to a nunnery!" 😂

I honestly think it's important to teach our children all the "life lessons" as much as possible including in schools. I look at some things I've been through and just think I wish I'd had some teaching regarding this at school, that includes money management, bills and understanding them. I usually sit to do all my bills etc on a Saturday now I'm on top of it more and I always explain to my children what it is I'm doing and why I'm doing it. They're really good with their own spends etc now too, there's no harm in having that extra bit of teaching whether it be at home or through school.

Reading this thread I suddenly feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I live in the U.K., where this is the type of issue we as parents are debating in regard to the role of teachers as educators. It’s feels humbling when you consider across the pond there is an entire first-world country conflicted over the ‘shall we arm teachers with guns?’ debate.

Parents' who are crap with money would not be able to teach budgeting and finance effectively.

I spent five years learning Latin. Time may have been better spent learning about plumbing, and saved me a lot of money.

I agree with you in theory but unfortunately there are a lot of really crap parents out there. If the schools don’t pick up the slack the children are the ones to suffer . It’s all a giant sticky plaster solution of course and doesn’t solve crap parenting .

Your response to this shows you have received privileges in your life that you aren’t even conscious about. Why when some parents can’t avoid woefully neglecting their child are you thinking they are capable of communicating these vitally important concepts? It shows a cloistered view that lacks true social awareness that you are asking this question. Totally unreasonable.

Precisely my Y7 11 year-old son was set today a research homework about cocaine for his biology lesson, his team will do a power pool by presentation. In fact we watched a few months ago the Gordon Ramsey program on cocaine and how it was made ... he suggested showing the 3 min clip to his class to show them all the rubbish that goes in it... unfortunately Gordon Ramsey can’t talk without swearing and that wouldn’t go well.

Power Point

I agree with Cheval.

Precisely.

So, in order to fit all this into the curriculum, we're going to cut any higher level academic work out. The subjects that for most are vital for further education and well paid careers. But as long as they can all budget on a low income, who cares if they could have had more from life?

I certainly wish I'd learned more life skills in school. I went to a faith school and we were barely taught about contraception. I remember them introducing PHSE but we only had 1 hour every 2 weeks, and we only ever had one lesson about drugs.

Abortion was only ever talked about in a biased way, as was homosexuality and pre-marital sex - which they referred to as 'fornication'.

I can't remember ever learning anything about running a household and budgets etc.

We all left school pretty sheltered.

This was in the early 00s.

Is not who is in charge, or whos duty is to teach these subjects, the problem is an outdated school system. Life skills are essential for a child's and unfortunately no every parent has the capabilities to teach them.

I think all kids should be taught touch typing.

No, if you do that then schools will start to separate into ones that assume that parents play some part in raising their own kids, and ones that don't. The parents that are involved in their DCs' lives are hardly going to want to send them to a school where a) DC are bored out of their minds learning stuff they've known for years and b) this happens at the expense of academic learning. Cue stratification between schools where you have a shot at getting into university, and ones where you get an NVQ in making a sandwich

This is so excellent and so important that it is worth saying twice.

If we really want to teach disadvantaged kids more life skills and if we have the resources to do so (which we do not, so it's a moot point anyway), it would make more sense to enroll struggling kids in compulsory summer holiday-time programs which teach those skills.

We had a lot of finance concepts talked about during assembly. You heard it multiple times by the time you left. Other pieces were slotted in as appropriate into subjects.

I think you should teach taxes and finance's in maths lessons and budgeting. kids need to know what happens in the real world when they get a job. I do think the schools have to teach really stupid things that parents are not teaching there children at home.

I wish I had been taught life skills including self respect when it came to sex. I had no sex education other than learning it from boys and older men who wanted to have sex with me. I also didn't learn money management, cooking or anything about nutrition. Or anything that useful to be honest. There are SO many things you do learn in science, geography and history that you don't need to know. Practical help with life skills, psychology and sociology would have been a million times better in my opinion.

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want your DC to be taught useful life skills?

Instead of what?

But don't worry about it. The private schools won't pay any attention and will continue to teach an academic syllabus. Don't then complain when your child can't get into medical school, because instead of doing A Level Chemistry they did "how to make a simplistic budget using an out of date version of Excel, taught by someone with no more financial knowledge than you."

There are SO many things you do learn in science, geography and history that you don't need to know.

That cheering you can hear is middle-class parents, applauding the idea that social mobility should be made even harder so that it's easier for their children to get into higher-tariff universities.

It’s more that the way that it is covered in school is WRONG and a teacher is not always best placed to teach young people what they need to know.
I am an eating disorders specialist. The way “healthy eating” is taught in schools is so so damaging. The way the government tries to educate society is just as bad (looking at you 100 calorie snacks advert)
YES teach young people about important issues. But bring in the experts who know what they are talking about to do it!

Judging by the current obesity crisis amongst Millennials, I'd say they definitely need to learn budgeting and healthy eating in school! 😂

School is the largest platform we will ever have to reach so many children at once.

It makes sense to use that platform wisely.