To think schools should have a class to teach basic life skills

[beesandstrawberries]

We all learned so much in school that we haven’t used in day to day life - I mean when have we ever touched a Bunsen burner since school? But none of us was learned the basics of life and how to navigate it - things like:

• Showing how to do basic meals, cooking pasta safety, use of kitchen appliances correctly
• paying bills
• what a mortgage is, how to deal with contracts and paperwork
• how to meter readings
• change a lightbulb, basic tool use in the home
• how to check fire alarms
• credit card education
• managing money, spreadsheets to manage them
• insurances like life insurance and what ones you need
• education on abusive relationship signs
• things like peer pressure
• how to write formal letters/emails

I think we learn so many things that mean nothing when we leave school. If you teach kids basic life skills from a young age, it would make kids a lot more well rounded and less anxious in the ‘real world’ when it comes to managing money and not getting in debt. Even learning things like the warning signs of abusive relationships to young and impressionable teens as I think if I heard the signs then, I would have know what to look out for to prevent myself from getting in one as an adult.

I remember being in the real world and not knowing how to have good money management and I’m 28 and have no idea how to change a lightbulb. Even education for kids to learn about their bodies, that their outie bellybutton is normal and so are their stretch marks - so they don’t go into adulthood thinking their bodies are imperfect.

Children deserve more than Shakespeare or how to play football in pe. They deserve a kick start to life

Parents should do it, but often they don't. Why should children be at even more of a disadvantage because their parents either don't have the knowledge or drive to teach them necessary life skills?

Schools already cover things like sex education, drugs awareness, and citizenship on a rotating basis. It wouldn't be that hard to add an extra life skills lesson that rotates in the same way. School shouldn't just be about league tables and exams, it's there to offer a full and rounded education. The focus should be on what children need, not what looks good in a report.

Edited to add: This isn't even a new idea. My grandmother remembers being taught how to run a house at school. Students took it in turns to practice cooking, cleaning, laundry etc and then hosted a dinner party for some teachers. Obviously I wouldn't want to go back to the sexism of the past (I doubt boys schools offered similar), but it would be brilliant if boys and girls could do similar now.

Plenty scoffing at the OPs idea because….parents.

But for those children blessed with ineffective, uneducated, uninformed, uninterested parents or guardians it would be a great help. There’s far more shite lazy parents out there than you’d think…some are probably reading this right now 👋🏼

Ideal for those children cursed with parents who think it’s acceptable to wear pj’s to school pickup and the drug addict types too, maybe we could do adult versions as well?

The quality/ life experience of parents varies massively. Mine taught me to cook and bake, but even though they ran their own business anything money/ maths related was dealt with by the accountant.
Luckily Im decent at maths.

Not everything is down to school! Exactly how much do you expect teachers to do? The general stuff like cutting onions, prepping veg and food hygiene was taught to me by my parents. My dad taught me how to change a lighbulb and fuse.

I do agree that some sort of financial literacy should be taught to children. For instance they could do a topic where they work in groups as married couple, cohabiting couple, single people with a salary and have to budget for the month. This would show them in actual fact how far the money would go and all the things they would need to consider. It would also be a stark way of looking at how certain jobs pay more or less. This is relalevant to their stage of life as they are considering what subjects they need to study for future job prospects.

The trouble with things like insurance and mortgages and understanding how they work is that it's not close to where they are in life so much harder to get them to engage with.

The thing is that RE covers a lot of why we behave the way we do. (I'm not a believer btw). Art, music, drama, festivals, literature, architecture are all heavily grounded in religion. RE outings go to churches, mosques, Hindu temples, care homes. Whether you believe or not, it underpins a huge amount of society.

What I see is reasoned responses. Not sure what your ellipsis means. Do explain.

Have you read anything that's been posted? So much is already covered in the curriculum. I know this and I'm in Australia FFS.

I have had this conversation with friends. It’s all well and good saying it’s parenting but some kids don’t have parents that show or tell them how to do even the most basic things.

Schools here have a 'Learning for Life' weekly class. There's 'General Studies' and earlier in senior school compulsory 'Home Economics' - cooking, food safety etc. Maths covers compound interest etc. And RE is important even if you are not religious to understand and respect those different from ourselves.

A lot of what you mention IS covered, but these classes are seen as a bit of a break/light relief/'not that important' (they are important, but that is how how they are perceived as no grade awarded) so kids mess about a bit. Same in Careers.

So I think it comes down to - did you pay attention? And/or did you develop critical thinking skills (to google or work out yourself) as undoubtedly time moves on and life is complex.

Also learning is reinforced a great deal better through action than can be taught sitting in a classroom.

Why don't we (teachers) just give birth to them for you, bring them up and then present you with a fully formed adult when they turn 18?

Haha it seems to be what some want isn't it! The funny thing is in real life the people i know that say school should do this and teach that are the same people who moan about state intervention into their lives (i don't mean social services or similar but a general comment that theyre their children they know whats best and the gov should have no say in their lives) - make it make sense!

The point is some parents aren't financially literate themselves so this paves the way for poorer families staying poorer, and as I said previously tends to affect women more. I personally know some women who grew up with no financial knowledge who made huge financial errors in their early 20s which affected their whole family's outlook.

In school my maths teacher anecdotally told us about how credit cards work and I NEVER forgot and I keep to his advice to this day 20 years later (I put everything on credit card but automatically clear it every month to avoid interest but gain a great credit rating + points + consumer protection). Out of everything I was taught in Maths it's the only class I outright remember as it was directly applicable to my life and therefore I found it interesting.

Saying finance isn't interesting - many young people are very interested in making money and how to manage it. I think around 15/16 would be a great time to do it. I mean why else are we even at school? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I really do think some financial classes should take place in schools such as how interest works on savings and debt, credit ratings, how to keep a rolling financial plan and forecast. Types of debt etc. These things don't change that much from year to year. Yes some security too such as paying attention to cybersecurity warnings carefully from your bank.

Effective education happens at school and at home. It teaches a child to communicate well, listening as well as talking. It teaches us to work together, develop empathy, share ideas. It teaches self worth and resilience. It teaches us to become resilient and independent, but caring and thoughtful of others. If a child/adult has those skills and attitudes, the rest follows.

Yep! And then when they're 18 they're old enough to move out! 😄

Just no. Do people not understand that having children comes with responsibilities - to feed them, look after them, teach them. What we need is parenting classes and more expectations on parents.

i would also add this, you don’t just learn individual facts, you learn also how to apply those facts eg percentages when understanding credit card interest. Children also learn by watching and participating at home. Helping parents with cooking, laundry, gardening. Doing this you learn lots of skills not just how to prepare one meal for example but how to boil water, chop veg etc that can be applied to many meals.

Lastly people need to stop bringing do lazy. Never before has there been so much information, help, support, so many how to videos, so many cookery she’s, finance shows, websites etc. All the info is there if you can be bothered to go and look for it and then spend time learning/applying it.

I wish we could stop this culture of blaming someone else, take some responsibility for yourself! If anything I’d like to see schools doing less of this stuff, I feel sorry for the teachers.

What we need is parenting classes and more expectations on parents.
👏

When do you want these things taught? When kids are 7? When kids are 16?
Life moves on and skills quickly become obsolete.

Those talking about learning to balance cheques, not a skill that's used at all today. Many people have smart meters and don't read them (I don't think this means you shouldn't know how to but hardly a priority for schools)

Lightbulbs come in all shapes and sizes. Time consuming to learn how to change them all. We don't have any bayonets in our house.

Much better for parents and children to react to the change around them and learn to use the internet or books to look up what they need to know.

And dumbing down the curriculum so it only teaches what "everyone" needs to know is crazy.
If no one uses Bunsen burners then no one will ever need to change a lightbulb again as technology will grind to a halt.

And also, as many people above have said, pretty much all of these things are already taught in schools.

My mum told me what it was like when she was at school and it was so sexist. The girls did home ec, the boys woodwork. The girls would cook an entire dinner, set the table nicely, then the boys would troop in, sit down, and the girls served them dinner!

Scouts do all of that, OP.

Alright, but the OP's point isn't that children with disadvantaged or neglectful upbringings should get more support. I agree they should. And the parents.

I think there can be a huge gap between 'wears pyjamas to school' and is a drug addict ' however.

The OP's point was 'what did Bunsen burners ever do for me?' when they've had 18 years to Google how to change a lightbulb. That is to say, let's jettison a lot of academic content in favour of extra 'life skills'. I've heard a lot.of this argument and am fiercely opposed to it.

I think as I say, kids in difficulty need extra support. They don't need opportunities taking away. They don't need awareness of opportunities and possible careers out there, possible talents or interests, reduced further. That's even if they're not able to take full advantage of those learning opportunities at that time. That's how to widen gaps between them and hugely advantaged children. How would they know anything about the sciences, mathematical principles, languages, music, art etc etc etc even sport beyond a local kick about their world is being shrunk further by the OP's idiotic policy? And what about the children without those issues? Don't they need stretching rather than having their wings clipped?

Plus the fact that the OP has focussed on Bunsen burners rather than a scientific principle or even the outcome learnt in an experiment using one is quite illustrative. It shows she's missed the point. Some children learnt a huge amount at school and took away from it a keenness to learn more.

Science was never about Bunsen burners, just like mathematics was never about set squares or art isn't just about the pencils.

It is a useless idea as most is already on the curriculum so what idea is it if most is already being taught?

Thing is while people say they were never taught it at school the reality is that yes they were but they had to be there and listen. If those two things were not in place then they cannot say it wasn't taught.

I disagree.

Many parents don't know how to navigate a good number of items on that list, because they were never taught themselves. These topics are important, just like sex-ed, and education has to start somewhere.

I think it should be a joint effort from the school and the parents ideally, but if the parents can't or won't do it, schools should prepare children for life as much as possible.

This. Parents do need to consider teaching their children "basic life skills".

I do not agree that schools/society should just pick up everything that parents cannot do/be bothered to do. This is why people are looking to the state more and more and absolving themselves of any responsibility. The children are then learning that they don’t have to worry either as the state/someone else will always pick it up. This is why many can’t ‘cope’ in the workplace.

I would prefer children to be taught that they need to use the resources they have to solve problems. I’ll say it again, never before has there been so much information available. I also simply do not understand why there is a constant need to be taught everything. I was never taught to clean, I just worked it out! If we persist with saying children need to be taught everything by someone else then it’s always someone else’s fault when they can’t do it.

Perhaps we should tell the children that their parents should be teaching them xyz and when they say they can’t as they don’t know then tell them to find out. Most of this is laziness and we can change it.

OKAY OKAY. Bloody hell.

I went to school in the 1970's. So it's changed. Whoopie doo.