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

Well I agree it does, but the OP is saying it should be taught in schools and it is. And that cooking should be taught in school, and it is. I think parents take main responsibility for this, but you can’t say it’s not covered at all in schools. Not really sure what your point is tbh

We learnt all of this in the80s in Australia. We even did “parent craft”!

I agree it’s very much needed. In the 90s I worked as a school liaison officer and went out to schools to teach money management.

Things I wish schools did teach:

First Aid
Financial Literacy - mortgages, pensions, debt etc
Philosophy and Critical Thinking
More time given over to study practical subjects

DD so far has made smoothies, biscuits(with oats), apple crumble, muffins, fish parcels, lasagne, pizza, chicken pies , fish cakes , stir fries in food tech. She’s y8.

Career guidance is obviously covered in schools already. Business studies is a GCSE option (in schools), food tech is a class in school.

If anyone is concerned about this on a personal level, ie for their own kid, rather than wanting it for every child, can I suggest Scouting or Guiding. It depends what badges they do but plenty cover different life skills. Most of that list is covered in my kids' school but it doesn't harm to reinforce it.

I've never used a bunsen burner since I left school but it did give me a really clear conceptualisation of what was going on when there was an issue with the gas pipes in my house. So it made me better at thinking. Also I imagine I benefit from the understanding of people who do get to use bunsen burners in their jobs.

There are 4 types of parents

Ones who do all that and more.

Those who don't know themselves

Those who think it's the schools responsibility to teach kids everything from wiping their own arses to how to eat with a knife and fork to how to actually be polite to others

Those who do absolutely everything for their children, run their lives so little Tarquin never has to even tie his own shoes (bit embarrassing for a member of parliament that but hay ho) and suddenly the kids are 40, ma and pa are getting on and the kids actually have to manage their own lives.

So whilst initially I said the parents should do it...I'd not trust 50% of them to do it and for the sake of the kids and for the country, schools should

This. Maybe teachers should do everything. Actually why not get them to do the pregnancy and labour - they haven’t got anything better to do.

Do parents expect to do ANYTHING these days?

Well, first you have to buy the new lightbulb. And if you follow your own instructions, you are very likely to come back with a screw in bulb (of random wattage) and then find that your socket is a bayonet one.

One of the many ways you can not change a lightbulb.....

I remember having this conversation with my DS when he was about 14 years old (about 15 years ago). He said exactly what you were saying. He felt that school had a duty to spend an hour a week on life skills of the kind that you are talking about.

When I was at school in 1970's we all did Domestic Science. We learned how to feed a family on 8oz of mince (involved padding meal out with lentils & chopped or grated veg), bread making, various forms of pastry (which included what to do with the left over bits such as making cheese straws or fruit savouries for lunch boxes) etc. But we learned about food groups, budgeting (including how compound interest worked), household hygiene etc. But I'd have liked to have learned how to put a shelf up, basic car maintenance, basic plumbing skills etc. But Teacher Google has proved immensely helpful on that front.

Hard to believe you're serious. No, that's the parents' job.

Surely you don't expect parents to any more than copulate?

I showed my dad how to wire a plug as I'd learnt how to in physics. He could teach me all about bank accounts and budgeting, but he couldn't even check the oil in a car (my mum used to do it). Some parents can't cook for toffee, and some can't even spell mortgage. It's not the kid's fault if their parents aren't great at everything.

Or parents could do it.

Only if they know how to do it in the first place.

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

Indeed, Children deserve Parents.

The world doesn’t end there, if you buy the wrong lightbulb you go back out and order the correct one. Then you change the lightbulb.

Does anyone remember that programme on channel 4 years ago, about going back in time at school? They demonstrated life skills were taught at school, along with normal classes. Although this was split by gender, with girls learning hospital corners etc.

It’s not so much that I think school should teach these skills, but should integrate to be part of the everyday. Like in Japan, where the children are responsible for cleaning the tables, sweeping the floor and tidying up. At lunch they help serve and clean up.

So cleaning and maintaining the classroom environment, will be reinforcing these skills that they should be using at home too.

What exactly do you think parents are for OP?

Also, you don’t learn to use Bunsen burners at school for the sake of making fire, they’re used to carry out educational and worthwhile experiments.

The point is I agree with op as a kid I was brought up on freezer meals had no idea about money management and was just generally clueless. I think its unfair that some kids start of their adult lives completely disadvantaged because parents can't or won't teach them basic life skills

Yes! I have thought for a long time that something like ‘home economics’ should be brought back, no boy girl split obviously but life skills and lessons. I think for some, that would be more valuable than anything else.

That's why anyone with just a smidgen of intelligence takes the old bulb out first to check the fitting. How hard can it be?

I suppose it's all very well saying 'the parents should teach it', but I'm fairly sure there are some parents who don't know that a loan isn't free money.

But would agree it's hard to teach as people come from such different baselines that it would be hard to pitch at the right level for everyone.

I was taught how to rewire a plug in physics on 1994.
I have yet to wire a plug. Watched my mum do it a lot.
I was also taught about sound conduction and the best place to stand at gigs. Now that, I have used.
I was taught, in 1995 in gcse maths, about compound interest. But I was motivated in adulthood by a fear of having no money and being in debt.

I learned to cook, sew, garden, change light bulbs at home. I know how to budget, but I've always been a bit haphazard, if I'm honest. But I do live in absolute fear of being without. Being mocked for having your mum make your clothes goes a long way.

Many kids reckon what I teach is useless (we already speak English, so what's the point? Why do do we need to know macbeth?)
But actually, I'm teaching them to critically analyse the written word; develop empathy and write coherently (and with flair, if I'm lucky). Often, they complain that they want to learn basic skills.
But let's face it, they'd soon moan that it was too basic. And they wouldn't listen anyway.

That's what parents should be doing. It's getting ridiculous really, as well as everything else schools even have to teach children to brush their teeth now because parents aren't taking responsibility.