Realised this year how much my 19 year old just doesn't know

[davidssdt]

Bit of a random one. My eldest is 19 and it's only this year I've properly clocked how much genuinely useful "adult life" stuff just never gets covered in school - not because teachers don't try, but probably more that there's never actually time carved out for it.
I had to sit down and explain what a mortgage actually is and why an unpaid phone bill can damage your credit file for years, because none of that had ever come up in school. Also had the apprenticeship vs uni conversation recently and realised there's no real structured way for them to weigh that up - it's basically left to them and whoever they last spoke to.
So for full disclosure, I'm actually building something around this (a curriculum site for 16-25s) but not naming it here as I don't want this to read as a plug. I'm genuinely just curious what other parents experience has been around this. What's the thing your teenager had absolutely no clue about until they had to learn the hard way?

Most of this stuff DOES get covered at school at some point. The issue is that young people need to have some vague interest in learning about it or it just goes over their head/doesn't engage them.

Lots and lots of practical financial stuff is used as examples in maths lessons. Personal finance is part of the KS5 PHSE curriculum. I can't imagine many schools don't educate about apprenticeships. They have Gatsby benchmarks to meet and degree apprenticeship applications run in parallel with the UCAS process.

It is the case in my experience that the students most in need of the information tend to skip tutor time/PHSE/mess about in Maths etc though sadly!

Teachers may not be the best role models either as many are youngish and not well off. I've certainly had to explain mortgages and pensions to teaching colleagues...

"Didn't take off"?

Around 21,000 students taking Citizenship GCSE.
Around 40,000 Economics A-level .
Around 130,000 Business GCSE.
Around 40,000 Business A-level (I don't have the stats for Business BTEC or the other vocational qualifications).
Maths is the most popular A-level amd everyone tales it for GCSE.

Plus compulsory PHSE.

Plus the plentiful, free resources online from banks and Martin Lewis and so on. They even advertise them (Barclay Money Sense and so on).

It's not exactly being ignored. You can take a horse to water...

I'm not sure your analogy is valid. I'm guessing that sex education in schools evolved because of parents being too embarrassed or squeamish, or kids being too resistant, at home.

By the way, why did you choose such an awful handle?

I stole my username from an FWR thread.