What would you like to see taught in schools that currently isn't?

[EllieRosesMammy]

I'd like cooking to be taught, when I was in school it was taught till year 9 and then optional after that. Plus when it was taught we were making something like scones or bread - not something you'd make every day.

I've met so many grown adults who can't cook and waste a fortune on crap and takeaways, I think teaching people basic cooking skills throughout school would help to prepare them for when they move out :)

Critical thinking, how to construct (and deconstruct) an argument, logic, rhetoric.

I'd expect most of that (not so much logic) to be part of the high school English (subject) curriculum at every age level.

This is turning into a parody thread. 😆

<eyes the Y7 scheme of work on rhetoric that is taught in the Autumn term>

That's great, but I said every age level, and it certainly wasn't in the Scottish Highers English paper I tutored.

Critical thinking and debating skills.

Cooking
first aid
sign language
finance
etiquette ie, how to use a fork, cut up food, manners (sorry, old fashioned)

Sone basic independence skills. Cooking, how to replace a fuse, put air in tyres, change headlamp bulbs. Nothing that would take an entire term just a few skills here and there

What I didn’t learn at school and that my parents didn’t think to teach me:

• How to spot a shit boyfriend / user
• how to deal with sexual harassment
• Why credit cards can be a terrible idea
• ditto scratch cards - the psychology of gambling
• Paying vs overpaying mortgage
• why pension contributions the day you start work are essential
• how to relax
• growing your own food

I learnt plenty about history, languages, cookery, needlework, science and maths plus and that condoms are important; (we didn’t get to put one on the banana); how to write letters, write a CV. I visited castles, plays, ballets etc. But I see definite gaps! See above…

Agree with cooking and basic financial matters; the latter should include bookkeeping for your own business. I spent too many unhappy years trying to fit into the employee mould because I didn’t know how to keep my accounts. A friend finally taught me and I never looked back. How many others would have the courage to follow their own passion in life sooner, if they were taught how to do this simple thing?

Politics, too many schools cancel the A level course.

I’d love to see these skills being taught

First aid
BSL
Home economics
Basic electronics repair (to save e-waste by repairing rather than chucking)
Clothing & textile repair
Gardening & growing food
Environmental studies
Critical thinking
Basic home repair stuff in general, like changing plugs (although most devices have EU sealed plugs now, it’s still useful to have)
Car maintenance

Just practical stuff really!

I went to an all girls school & we campaigned for one of our Home Ec rooms to be turned into a CDT lab! We ended up being sponsored by a big electronics & manufacturing company. It was brilliant!

I can only speak of my own and my own children’s experience.

The number of shop workers who cannot calculate change or percentages is shocking. (Obv not all shop workers!)

Mandarin.

Programming. It's 2022, the curriculum is slow to catch up.

All these suggestions of life skills, I guess would be a good addition to tutor time or phse. I remember spending soooo long being taught about sex and drugs. Maybe relevant in the area but overdone.

Finances, budgeting, saving, mortgages, getting into debt, credit cards, loans!!

Correct spelling, punctuation and grammar would be good.
Also perhaps first aid, basic nutrition and simple cooking, budgeting, how to run a home.

Dc do Mandarin (and other languages) and cooking

but I’d like economics earlier and media criticism - media influence is very powerful and I think more dc need a barrier to that

What the future truly looks like for those who don’t want to learn at school

Life skills such as finance, debt, credit,

Addictions such as alcoholism and gambling

Class Interviews with drug addicts

Critical thinking, research skills, logic, debating, constructing sound verbal and written arguments.

Basics of comparative political and legal systems, including the concept that the UK hosts multiple such systems that vary.

Diversity: the awareness and understanding that varying priorities, experiences, views, and philosophies are subjective and may legitimately coexist.

Came on here to say this too

Filing stuff.

Recognising what is an irrelevant email at 40 paces.

Working out what to click when you want to buy tickets for a film on Odeon app with your Meerkat movies discount code.

setting up an Amazon Alexa device.

Some time around 10-15 years ago (it's too depressing for me to think back to the exact time- time flies too quickly!) I sat through a (primary school) staff meeting/INSET training that talked about 'teaching children the skills for jobs that don't even exist yet'. It was all about teaching children skills of problem solving, IT literacy, resilience, etc. It was under the Labour government. It made sense and excited me.

Very soon after, I was sitting in staff meetings/ INSETS, talking about a shift to a knowledge based curriculum - with a focus on grammar, spelling tests, historical knowledge, reciting poetry... Etc. (yeah... Gove).

I'm no longer a teacher.

The only thing I will say though, is that people are always banging on about how 'it should be taught in schools...'

But if you've ever had any experience of teaching, you'll know that there is only so much that teenagers will take in. So it's great to say 'teach them about budgeting and loans and mortgages and relationships' but if teenagers feel it has no relevance to them, there's only so much they'll take in. Non - teachers have no idea how much you can bang on about capital letters, question marks, too not to, their not there, EVERY SINGLE DAY and the children still don't apply it. The odd lesson in finance or relationships or whatever it is you think important will not be retained. To learn something, it needs to be repeated over and over and over again. So it needs either A LOT of curriculum time (weekly minimum) or it needs to be reinforces over and over and over again at home (dependent upon parenting).

First aid

Why we don't need animal products to be healthy. (And can be much healthier without.)
Which leads to:

Critical thinking and questioning what we are told as a society.

So just looking back... A few people are talking about mortgages and finance. But the average age to buy a first home is around 30 I think now, so to a 16 year old it's about a relevant as what religious beliefs Henry VIII held. They are just not interested. So unless you set it as actual GCSE questions to revise, trying to teach a lesson on apply for a morgage to 15 year olds, they're going to take in as much as if I sat you down and explained what controls and physics you'd need to land a rocket on the moon.

Finance
DIY
First Aid