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

What exactly is it that you think parents are supposed to teach their children?

I have seen idiots saying teachers should teach toileting, toothbrushing, dressing/undressing, healthy eating, manners, discipline and so many other things.

Other than a bedtime routine, I think lazy parents seem to believe teachers should do all the jobs and just leave parents with the odd pick up from outside a club.

I get that they teach a load of rubbish in schools.
My opinion of schools and teachers is so low I electively home educated both my children as I wanted them to thrive. (they did/do)

But really, parent your own child or don't have children.

It's not a teachers job to parent your child.
They probably do teach some of that stuff but you don't even pay attention to what children learn, you just assume everything is fine as long as you don't have to make any effort whatsoever.
Bet you'll pull a surprised Pikachu face if your kids don't do well in their GCSEs too.

If you don't know how to change a lightbulb, look it up on YouTube, practise it a few times then TEACH YOUR CHILD this very basic skill.

Stop leaving your children ignorant while you are waiting for other people to do your job.

Children deserve parents who can be bothered to put down their mobile phone long enough to teach them how to cook pasta, or use kitchen appliances, change a lightbulb, manage finances or whatever it is they need to do for life skills.

Children deserve parents who will learn those skills if they don't have them just so they can pass them on to their child.

It is YOUR FAULT if your child doesn't have those skills.
What is the point of you if you aren't bringing them up to cope in a normal everyday situation like reading a meter or setting up a direct debit?

This attitude of offloading all your responsibilities onto everyone else makes me really angry.
I pity the children of parents who think like you OP.

You're 28 and you've never changed a lightbulb? I suspect that means (a) you're still living with your parents, in which case most of those other lessons do not apply, (b) you're married to someone who does everything, in which case most of those other lessons do not apply, or (c) you live in a cave, in which case most of those other lessons do not apply.

For changing lightbulbs the trick is wait until they are cool, and go gently unless you are sure whether they are a bayonet fitting (push up and twist 90 degrees) or screw fitting (just twist, several times). Lesson done.

Next lesson: changing a plug.........

If schools have to take things like this on what do they drop, or do the government seriously up the resourcing they give to schools? You suggest.

god I had a very middle class normal upbringing and have two degrees to my name but honestly all the bills and shit I went from my parents home to living with my husband and I still haven’t ever done that stuff. I’m sure if I had to do it I would figure it out but I’ve genuinely just never had to do it so don’t really know how!
however kid wise I’m well aware that i need to do a better job here!

It’s a nice idea but in reality most kids would find personal finance and mortgage lessons really tedious and would not be interested.

Also, things change so quickly. Lots of posters on here learnt how to write cheques in school but nobody does that anymore. Nowadays learning how not to get scammed online would be more useful!

Maths skills are useful because it’s so fundamental and does not change. Once you understand percentages, it helps you to understand interest rates etc.

However I am totally amazed how many parents I come across who have not opened a bank account for their child! It’s one of the most basic things you can do. Teaches them what bank accounts are, how to use them, what a bank statement is, how to save…. And school can’t do that for them (for once).

You are conflating two entirely different things. You can't assume one case of affairs on the basis of the other.

Teaching reading and maths is proper to schools, though there's nothing to stop parents from having a go.

Basic life skill is ultimately up to the parents.

100% abusive relationships. Parents won't necessarily have the understanding. I wish I'd been taught about this instead of learning the hard way. My life would have been very different for me :-(

Healthy relationships is on the PHSCE curriculum.

• Showing how to do basic meals, cooking pasta safety, use of kitchen appliances correctly
• What a mortgage is
• things like peer pressure
• how to write formal letters/emails

I learned all of these things in school (in the early 2000s).

• education on abusive relationship signs

I didn't learn about this, but I believe it's part of the PSHE curriculum now..?

• paying bills
• how to deal with contracts and paperwork
• managing money, spreadsheets to manage them

Not really sure what needs to be taught here..? Isn't it common sense? Unless you're very wealthy then "managing money" basically comes down to "add up what you spend on rent, bills and petrol each month, take that away from what you earn, and try not to spend more than the difference on other stuff".

If I'd been taught how to pay bills in 2002 it would all have become obsolete by time I moved out at 23 anyway! My mum used to pay bills by giro at the Post Office or by sending a cheque. Smartphone apps and online banking were a long way off. That's the trouble with teaching specific things like that at school, and the same applies to things like paying taxes, anything like that - processes like that can easily change from one year to the next, but what school does teach you is the basic literacy, numeracy and computer skills needed to read instructions and work out for yourself what to do.

• how to meter readings
• change a lightbulb, basic tool use in the home

Parents are far better placed than teachers to teach that sort of thing, given that most classrooms have strip lighting and won't have easy access to the meters. And even if they forget, it's not exactly rocket science to work out.

• how to check fire alarms
• credit card education
• insurances like life insurance and what ones you need

Yeah, I can see these being useful to learn. That'd take up 10-20 minutes of a PSHE lesson or maths lesson.

On the flip side, I get fed up of hearing people moaning that they "never use" the stuff they learnt at school. So you never use a bunsen burner... Neither do I, but my GCSE science knowledge comes into play on a regular basis in everyday life even if it's just things like understanding news articles I've read, and having GCSEs in science gave me the option of further study in science, and then going into a science-based job later on if I had wanted to. My field of work is also one where people frequently complain of having had to learn it at school because it's "useless". My dad uses algebra every single day at work. All school subjects are useful to someone, and even when a subject isn't directly useful to you, education gives people opportunities, even if they don't take them, and exposes people to knowledge and skills they wouldn't otherwise experience. The alternative would be letting children drop any school subjects they don't like at a very young age, which would drastically limit their options in later life.

As an atheist, I completely disagree. Pretty much every society in the world is founded on one religion or another. I think learning about the major world religions is crucial to understanding all sorts of things from current affairs to history, including our own culture (which is heavily influenced by Christianity in all sorts of ways whether you like it or not), to even just helping to understand why your neighbours have different habits than yourself.

We had cookery lessons and were taught how to write letters at school.

Dealing with peer pressure and how to recognise abusive patterns in friendships or relationships could be tackled at school, and I do think it is really about time maths lessons included some practical information about personal finance. The rest of it could and should be learned at home really.

“Schools shouldn’t tell our children when they can go on holiday or what to wear or when they can go to the toilet”
also
”why aren’t schools teaching our children the basic life skills and basically raising them to be functional humans?”

Yes you are BU because all of those skills (except maybe replacing a light bulb) are currently taught in schools. If your child doesn't know how to do these things it is because they weren't listening. And if they aren't a listener, then doing it in a special "Life Skills" class won't change anything!

That's why anyone with just a smidgen of intelligence who has been told there is more than one sort of lightbulb fitting takes the old bulb out first to check the fitting. How hard can it be?

Fixed it for you. Are you now able to understand my point?

‘ But none of us was learned the basics of life and how to navigate it’

Obviously not ‘learned’ basic English.

Many of these things on your list are definitely covered in school.

Abuse / coercive control etc is taught in school as part of PSHCE. I've taught this myself to Year 10s or Year 11s.

Yes, the OP's Bunsen Burner comment is unbelievably ignorant.

I've never used any of the science I learned at school, but I realise that it's important to have people becoming scientists. Therefore I can see that we need to teach basic science at school, and see which children have a talent for it and interest in it to become scientists in future.

For the millionth time, relationships and finances ARE taught.

Maybe have a look at what’s on the PSHE curriculum? It’s largely statutory now so lots of what you want is already there.

Most 11 - 16 year olds would struggle to sit through a lesson mortgages.

Much of what you want should be the job of parents anyway,

“Schools shouldn’t tell our children when they can go on holiday or what to wear or when they can go to the toilet”

of course they should, at work you have a wee before the meeting so you don’t need to leave mid way through it’s just manners and organisation

at work you don’t roll your skirt up and flash your knickers and you book holiday when it’s convenient and a sensible time not in the middle of the companies busiest time

policies and rules and codes of conduct are everywhere and start at school nothing wrong with that

Some of that is covered in the Scottish curriculum, across different topics/subjects, but most of this really is the role of a parent or guardian.

Whilst I agree that’s where parents come into the equation. There are a lot of people who have parents who just don’t have some of these skills, therefore the problem continues.

There are also the issue of time and budget limitations. Some kids need those conversations over and over to help it sink in, rather than one 10 minute careers appointment. Schools will just never have the budgets for this

Actually a lot of this stuff is now taught in modern PSHE lessons, eg financial literacy, coercive control. And most DC do an element of food tech.

You can’t ask schools to do everything - it’s still a lot to get millions of kids whose parents don’t give a damn to a decent reading and maths standard.

Parents and grandparents have a responsibility to do these things too.

Tbh, OP, it's local MPs you need to contact. Or start a petition on the platform that guarantees a certain number of signatories on a petition will be discussed in Parliament (I can't remember its name) if you want curriculum change.

But, as other posters have said, most of those things are taught in schools already, as others have said. I teach year 3 and we have taught healthy and toxic friendships. We discuss peer pressure in year 5.

We teach percentages and 'basic' maths in primary too, believe it or not...

Year 5 teaches how to read a bank statement and money sense (eg being able to prioritise spending, how to keep your money safe, the difference between having the money in your account and being able to 'afford' something etc).

As for changing a light bulb. No one taught me how to change a light bulb - I worked it out for myself. Every time I get an energy bill, it tells me on the back how to take and submit a meter reading. School teaches you to read.

Schools can't teach everything you'll ever need to know - where does it stop? Changing the fuse in a plug? How to change a light switch? Hang wall paper? How to book a holiday?

As others have also already said, we already teach children to brush their teeth (Reception now brush every child's teeth every day), how to use cutlery, how to tie shoelaces, how to do up a zip, how to get themselves dressed, how to use the toilet because many parents aren't teaching those things.

Most people who live independently work out these things for themselves or are taught by parents.

School teaches stuff parents can't we can't be there to teach absolutely everything they can't be bothered to teach them too. There just isn't enough time in the day. So we equip children with the skills to find these things out for themselves. Not everything can be taught as a discrete skill.

Most teachers include other 'life stuff' as part of incidental learning throughout the day and respond to children's questions.

But we have no control over the actual curriculum.