Fed up with my kids going to school and not learning life lessons.

[Ncoopa]

Does anyone else think we need a serious rethink of our education system?

Pythagoras, algebra, complex verbs, chemical make up of plutonium, these are just a few things my kids have learnt about this week.

They will come out of the education system not knowing how to insure a car or road tax. How to boil an egg. How to create a budget and stick to it.

Is it time we say it’s time to stop? And reevaluate? And stop wasting 5 hours a week on science when hardly any then go on to use it?

I really think it probably is.

You use algebra pretty much everyday just probably don't realise.

Schools can't do everything - that's where parents come in!

I work, single parent of 3 - all 3 can bake, manage their money (eldest 2 have worked since they where 15, youngest has Go Henry for pocket money and just started her first job) cook meals, pay bills, DD1 sorted her insurance when she moved out, we discuss politics at home all the time - you make time - because you are the parent!

Budgeting is basic maths. I earn x amount

My bills come to y amount

X -y = what I have left. If it is a negative (often called a minus number at school) it means I need to spend less or earn more.

The things you mention are things that most parents can teach though- budgeting and saving, cooking, changing lightbulbs, basic DIY, what mortgages are all about, basic sewing etc etc. Those things often need to be built up slowly over time in an age appropriate way. They don’t have time for everything at school, and I’d rather they stick to topics that I wouldn’t stand a chance of teaching.

I personally feel that life skills are best taught in a guided way when the necessity for them happens.

My daughter has just bought her first home and was a bit bewildered. But I assured her that as each step progresses I will be there to guide her. Its a bit gobbledygook until you need said skills

For most children life skills are learnt at home, when needed and when the child is the right age . But it is most definitely part of our responsibility as parents in raising children

My GCSE physics teacher spent a lesson on the "life skill" of changing a plug. It was an honourable sentiment, but in reality hasn't served me well because safety legislation means that plugs are fitted as standard on new electrical products, design has changed so fuses can be changed without taking a plug apart, and should I actually need to do this, great innovations like smart phones and youtube mean that I don't have to rely on a 25+ year old memory.

Life skills change. Most have become easier. DM occasionally went to an insurance broker's office to sort her car insurance, I phoned around and negotiated prices down when I first had to arrange mine, a few years later doing it online became a mainstream method.

The greatest life skill is being able to look up what you need to know, and most people are capable of doing that for themselves.

Yes, I'd wager that most people's failure to stick to a budget has little to do with their grasp of mathematics.

Sure, there are some more practical things which could be taught en masse in schools, but you can't hold schools responsible for teaching you every last little thing. There's a frankly pathetic culture of willing helplessness in this country.

I remember a thread a while ago about poverty and obesity and someone saying that it was the fault of schools for not teaching people how to cook healthy meals. When it was pointed out that there was a vast array of information and recipes available online, the response was along the lines of "Well it's no use if they don't know what they're searching for"!
Yep, unless a formal education system holds your hand through every last step, there's no possible way you'll be able to type "Healthy meals on a budget", or something similar, into a search engine.

And what about humanities? Or the arts (quite a lot of people go on to make their living in the arts)? What about sport, or technical subjects? Do they all need to be dropped in favour of "basic life skills wot my parents can't be arsed to pass on"?

A lot of school is about learning how to learn, and I agree that things like compound interest/maths as it is used in real life would be useful. However, beyond that I think the shakeup that is needed is about properly valuing vocational education in the way that is done in Germany and the Netherlands. There should be a system that allows all young people to follow their identified talents, not just the academic ones (and mine are all academic as hell).

Unfortunately that means selection, and not in the way that it is done here in the UK. It means the government putting real funding into high quality vocational education like BTECs - not just scrapping them and replacing them with T levels which are only accessible to people who are academically in the 7 - 9 range, which entirely defeats the object. And given that the UK still floats on the garbage that is the legacy of the class system, that won't happen.

Apart from geometry, algebra and chemistry?

I mean I definitely think the recorder lessons could go... I don't anyone who has gone on to make a career out of that

Yes, absolutely people should train for 3+ years and get qualifications and take out student loans so that they can teach kids how to boil an egg!

It does not take a university degree to teach someone how car insurance works or how to boil an egg OP. But can untrained parents teach them about pythagoras and quadratic equations and Spanish and the importance of the Norman Conquest?

Good point, I still remember Pythagoras theorem is 3.142 and can honestly say it hasn’t had any benefit to me as an adult 😊

The curriculum does need to be updated in my opinion

So sick of nonsense like this. Teachers are not parents. We already do absolutely loads that parents should do, including, for many, stability and emotional support.

Teach your kids 'life skills' yourself, and let teachers do what they are actually meant to do. Goodness me.

@MidnightEagle the recorder is however a gateway drug to the flute and other wind/woodwind instruments...

@Surfingonthewaves basic trigonometry was incredibly helpful in the archaeology field work I did at university, and has also come in handy in DIY.

This!!! ⬆️ Seriously. I'm a Primary School Teacher & parents increasingly seem to think it's our job to teach their children absolutely everything!

We have SO many children every year who aren't toilet trained, can't dress themselves or tie laces, can't use cutlery, can't tell the time, etc.

We simply haven't got the time to squeeze in all the extra life skills that could/should be covered at home; partly due to the utter imbeciles in the government who dictate the national curriculum & all manner of other ridiculous crap that they demand we do & the hoops they expect us to jump through...all whilst being incredibly under staffed, having next to no resources & fighting with rapidly shrinking budgets!!

Playing the recorder is a great introduction for many children to musical instruments.

If you want a curriculum that is personalised to what has been useful to you then you need to make your own school.

Last week during some SATs revision my Yr6's asked if we could practice telling the time and money. Too many of them can't tell the time or confidently handle money. This is not a curriculum issue, I don't have time now to be teaching something parents should have done a long time ago. They can't tie shoe laces, address a letter correctly, weigh ingredients, some of them can't ride a bike and at least half of them couldn't swim in September. These children are months away from secondary school!!

@Pollydarling my kids can't ride a bike (they're adults now). There's nowhere safe to do it where I live. Swimming is too expensive for many parents - not just lessons, just accessing the pool. 13 years of austerity taking its toll there.

Telling the time etc. is definitely on parents.

I don’t think that’s what Pythagoras’ theorem is but fortunately you’ve never needed it so that’s okay. Phew!

⬆️100% agree! (Fellow yr6 teacher.)

It's unbelievable.

Maths teaches them how to budget. Can’t do it without maths.
But also ours have citizenship lessons, they talk about drugs gangs, budgets, salaries, household incomes. They probably don’t talk about car tax cos they’re 12, but we did have some lunchtime talks on some stuff like that at sixth form. And cookery lessons (and all literate subjects) teach them to follow recipes. I think you’re being overly binary and dismissive, and possibly unaware of the other stuff school is doing. And some things are best taught when they come up. If someone told me about how to get car insurance years before I was planning to learn to drive, I’m not sure I’d pay a lot of attention.

Oh my god.

It's called PARENTING.

You seem to be confusing Pythagoras’ theorem with Pi.