AIBU to wonder what on earth kids are being taught in schools these days??

[BreadRoll]

So context; my DS (13 m) loves diet coke. He is not normally allowed fizzy drinks but I make an exception for meals out, cinema etc. Diet coke is a treasured substance for him and what he doesn't finish he usually tries to bring home. He went to the movies with DH yesterday and unknown to me came home with a huuuge coke.

This morning he is grouchy and wants to use the microwave (he has to ask because he has a track record of causing accidental explosions). I ask why? He shows me the precious coke and it is frozen solid, like the godzilla of popsicles. He wants to use the microwave to melt it. Again, I ask why? His response:

So that the ice cubes wouldn't melt.

I know that states of matter were covered in chemistry this year and he takes food tech and they also covered the water cycle in geography. He gets pretty good grades in all three subjects and he has no special needs apart from CSDD (common sense deficiency disorder- I just made it up but he has it).

AIBU to call his school and demand to know what he is even being taught in these lessons when, as a teenager, he doesn't understand that water freezes when you put it in the freezer???

I think you need him in the kitchen and doing practical applications of science. Some kids don’t learn well through theory but when they can see a substance move through the states of matter it can click into place.

My eldest(15) is turning into a pretty accomplished cook and I’ll be honest was a real liability in the kitchen when younger.

Does he realise that the coke is water based, and that both the coke & the ice cubes will melt at the same rate in ths microwave

This is why he doesn't understand how freezers work.

You've never made ice lolllies or ice cubes with him?
He's not allowed to use the microwave even though he is a teenager now?

Is he allowed to make a cup of tea? Warm up milk for weetabix? Boil an egg?

By 13 my son could cook a basic meal, make himself a hot drink, wash and dry clothes, make milkshakes with the blender (and knew what happened when something went in the freezer probably by the age of 5).

If your son can't do any of this yet it's not the school who is to blame.

Very confused about the microwave/freezer scenario. So did he think the coke had a lower freezing point than -20?

Anyway, children with an apparent lack of common sense need explicit instruction on how to carry out basic life skills. There should be checking for understanding, practice for fluency and regular revisiting of the information. Bit like teaching states of matter.

Say more please! You don’t agree with Shakespeare being taught in schools?

What makes you think it's the school's fault? Could be he just didn't understand that topic. Or saw something on ticktock or YouTube? In all fairness to him if he had put the coke in the fridge overnight the icecubes would likely have melted depending on setting. In freezer they didn't melt except the whole think froze. You calling the school is like setting of a nuclear bomb because you stubbed your toe

This is hilarious. Let him try his experiment. Ask if the ice cubes are still frozen once he’s finished.

Hopefully the penny will drop.

I discourage him from entering the kitchen and handling appliances.

So a teenager whose parents don't let him use kitchen, has no practical application of how they work, whose fault is that do you think?

By all means phone up the school and demand to know what they are teaching him though.

🙄

There is quite a lot of science involved in this… In theory the ice cubes would melt before a sugar based watery liquid. However, carbonated drinks should never be thawed in the microwave due to risk of explosion. So that would be in keeping with your prior kitchen experiences with your son!

It's the single-stage thinking that almost all teens (and some adults!) have at some time or another.

His logic:

I don't want the ice to melt. I know, I'll put it in the freezer.

The next thoughts he forgot to think :

But if I do that, the coke will freeze too
And if I want the coke to defrost tomorrow, the ice cubes will melt too. Whether or not I use the microwave to melt them.
So my choices are chilled diluted-from-melted-ice-cubes diet coke from the fridge, or microwaved diluted-and-defrosted diet coke. What a conundrum.

To be fair, I didn't have the faintest understanding of states of matter - or even of science in general - when I was 13 months old either...

Please tell me the kettle isn't out of bounds as well. Heaven forbid you've got a teen who doesn't make hot drinks at your command, that's the best bit about having kids.

Is this like the old joke about the man with the thermos flask, who had been told that it could keep hot things hot and cold things cold - so he tipped a couple of mugs' worth of tea into it followed by half a dozen scoops of ice cream to have after his sandwiches?

Your DS has no common sense, difficult to teach.

But it’s your job to try.

Ringing the school and demanding why he’s got no common sense would be hilarious though

How on earth is he supposed to learn? He’s 13, not 3. He should be cooking the occasional meal and loading the dishwasher/washing machine by now.

How do you expect him to manage when he leaves home, potentially in 5 years?

His inadequacy is not the fault of his school.

To be fair to him, if he’d done this with a jug of vodka then he might have been alright. He’s now learnt that Coke freezes at a temperature a lot closer to water than he originally thought.

I’m not really sure how you learn this other than through experimentation (see above as to how I know I can chill vodka and not freeze it…)

It's funny how many people are taking you seriously OP. I also have a teenager with CSDD. If he did this, I'd be teasing him about it for the next ten years!

Let him put it in the microwave , and let him find out for himself that Diet Coke is mostly water & sugar, that ice is water, and that microwaves work by agitating the water & sugar ( & fat) molecules in food to produce heat.

Instant science lesson

A few years ago,my ds told me he was going to apply for a credit card (he would have been 20/21)

My whole family are anti credit ('cash is king!credit is evil and to be avoided') and I've never had one

'Only spend what you can afford and pay it back promptly'

'I have to pay it back???'

'Yes son,with interest if your late paying it back!'

It blew his brain and I know more than one work colleague took the pics

I should add in your DS's defence that there are threads and threads all over the internet (including on MN) of grown adults who suddenly realised they believed something stupid. Unless you logic some things out you never know that you're wrong.

I wondered why your 13 m old child was going to the movies and bringing home a Diet Coke….

but as it appears he’s 13 years, why on earth isn’t he in the kitchen, preparing meals and beginning to understand the basic chemistry involved in using cookers, freezers and microwaves?

OP you didn't let him near the freezer? Honestly what safety fear did you have from that? Oven - totally get it. Dishwasher, fridge, freezer not so much.

You can blame the school but he is right. The ice cubes didn't melt. It's just the rest of the drink that also froze that he seems to not have put together.

I dont think this a school issue. This is down to common sense.

This is down to a parent that never showed her son how things work in the kitchen. Never let him use a microwave or freezer, never mind the cooker or a food processor! It's 100% on his mother. And in ten or twenty years time when there's a woman on here who can't believe how useless her partner is, she will be justified in blaming the MIL.

Erm, this is not a school problem. No offense, but you created this one all by yourself!

When he does not know how to make a cuppa, slice and toast bread, make a simple pasta meal, or possibly even unpack and put away the week's shopping are you going to blame school too?

FWIW my 9 year old can do all of the above (supervised) because we've taught him! We, as in his parents. School can't do it all OP.