AIBU to think they NEED to teach car maintenance at school?

[MeMyCatsAndMyBooks]

Today my car tyre popped on a piece of metal left in the middle of the road, and I had no idea what to do.
I've been driving since I was 17 and I'm in my 30s and never had an accident touch wood or anything wrong with my tyres.
I instantly panicked as it happened in the middle of a giant hill and knew I couldn't do it there, thankfully a really kind man ran out and helped it be pushed to the side & changed my tyre for me.

I had no idea how to do it, or what a space saver tyre really was! Luckily I got it home driving very slowly & onto my drive and have my breakdown cover coming out next week to change the tyre.
But I just had no idea about any of it. Im aware I sound like a helpless woman, but im usually quite independent but this knocked me for six!

AIBU to think they need to teach car maintenance in school rather than pushing maths (which lets face it isn't anywhere as important) onto students till they turn 18?

No.

Secondary school aged children cannot drive. Some will never drive. At some point, people have to take responsibility for their own lives and knowledge and not rely on school to fill every single gap.

I'm a qualified mechanic and I don't think the general public should be allowed to service their cars themselves or change parts. Basic maintenance yes-learning how to change a tyre, wiper blades, bulbs, top up fluids etc is important but as a driver it's your responsibility to know how to do that. Not everybody in school will go on to drive so it's pointless making it a part of the curriculum.
The amount of idiots I've seen when I worked in a garage who tried to do something to their car and then broke it is unbelievable. Only a qualified person should be able to work on cars past the basics IMO.

This here.

I wish people would pack it in with the "Schools should teach..." crap.

Schools are not there to teach every single life lesson.
My father taught me to drive. I was so excited for my first lesson... Which was how to change a wheel.

My DP taught our children how to check oil, water and tyre pressures and how to change a wheel whilst they were learning to drive.

Yawn, every day there's some person who hasn't bothered their backside to take steps to teach THEMSELVES the basics of something or another and rather than taking responsibility and saying "My bad, rather than wasting all that time watching Love Island I could have been learning to change a tyre / set up a pension / plaster a wall" they want to push all of the responsibility onto someone else.

It is not the teaching profession's job to compensate for your cluelessness.

No. If they had capacity, I’d rather schools taught life skills that everyone might need like finance and budgeting, understanding how government/tax works, household maintenance/management.

Why the fuck do people think it’s schools’ responsibility to teach you absolutely everything you need to know life? Take some responsibility to learn things for yourself

My dad taught me how to change a wheel and other basic car maintenance when I started driving at 17. I will do the same for my children (if they ever get round to learning!)

This is not a job for schools.

Right fair enough, but who even teaches how to change a tyre?

Google is great but it's not a actual teacher in front of you teaching you. Not all of us are lucky enough to have a parent or loved one to teach us this skill.

So pay for breakdown cover then! I can't change a tyre but I can use a phone to call the AA!

Why? Less and less people will own cars.

Teach how to ride a bike and use the road before car maintenance stuff.

This is unreasonable, secondary school students don’t drive and some never will. Why waste school’s times teaching such things when many children will never use such skills?

Or you use Google to search for "basic car maintenance for beginners" and book yourself into a class. 🙄

YABU

If you learn to drive, then you learn to look after your car - and by default yourself - at that point..

If your parents doesn't know how to do it, then you ask a friend.

How have you been driving for 12 years without knowing this ?

Completely BU here. They don’t teach driving at school - it’s not mandatory to learn, plenty of people don’t - so why would they teach car maintenance?

The amount of things people think they should be teaching at school is endless and would leave no time for actual school.

Also, if you’d learnt to change a tyre at school in year 11 would you remember now? Would you really feel confident changing a tyre just based on that?

I taught myself to fit carpets with youtube... I learnt to change a tyre and do basic maintenance when I learnt to drive.

Schools cannot do everything...

YABU. TBH the fewer people who drive and the more who opt for mass transit the better, for the environment.

Ask a mechanic or driving instructor to recommend someone to give you a lesson.

For the driving test you need to be able to demonstrate how to do key maintenance things for a car.

i know how to change a tyre in theory. But in reality if they have been put on with a machine it’s unlikely to come off by hand anyway so frustratingly I still need to get a mechanic out.

YABVU. If you own a car it is your responsibility to both maintain it and know what to do in an emergency.

You’ve been driving over a decade. You’ve had long enough to learn what to do in different situations if you were so interested in doing so. You chose not to.

Maybe schools should teach how to... Everrrrythhiiiing.

Not like the general knowledge is generally lacking already. Let's make schools teach all the stuff.

I propose beer making as well. Oooh and how to take care of pet lizards. You know, in case some get some in future and fail to adult and learn important bits themselves.

I’m not sure where in the curriculum this will happen, given that people seem to think schools should teach everything.

There’s a case for leaving specialised jobs to those who have been trained to do them. Of course everyone should know basic stuff, but there’s a difference. Of course maths teaching is needed before car maintenance. Maths impacts every area of life, as does reading and writing (or typing). Not everyone will drive, but everyone will need to be able to read and calculate.

Of course they don't need to.
It's sensible to inform yourself but some people will never want to tinker with any part of a car. You can go on courses as an adult I believe.

Surely what you do when a tyre goes on your car is move the car somewhere safe and then call someone out to fix it? It’s not hard.

I've been driving 27 years and never changed a tyre. My most recent car (last 8 years) doesn't even carry a spare tyre. On the very rare occasion when I've had a puncture (only about 3 times ever) I've called a breakdown service. I'm pretty sure even if someone showed me how to do it I wouldn't trust my physical strength enough to be sure everything was tightened enough to be safe. I'd rather get a professional to do it. My car maintenance knowledge goes as far as fill up fuel, fill up adblue, fill up wash fluid, change wiper blade. Anything more advanced I'd happily pay the garage to do it.