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?

Welcome to parenting!

I know you're just plugging a business but do you genuinely think people are that stupid?!

You can't teach what you don't know.

In first year of secondary we all did home ec. We leant to make basic meals, how to wash up, use a washing machine, iron a shirt, re wire a plug, change a light bulb and basic food hygiene. These are thing which are easier to learn in person. DC didn't learn this at school, so I taught them.
Mortgages and credit rating can be read about.

Martin Lewis has a kids info/course that schools get free

Why would any of that come up in school? You’re the parent, you should bs teaching things like money management.

Man comes on Mumsnet to mansplain parenting and at the same time plug his business idea and ask (mostly) women to do his thinking for him (I missed the last sentence on reading the first time) and gets his arse handed to him. Result.

I kind of understand. I am well over 19 and still struggle with car insurance no claims bonus terms . And how is it easy to just switch mortgage providers .

Yeah my 9 year old knows what a mortgage is. I explained it to him as part of “why Mummy and Daddy need to go to work”, which tends to come up quite early in life.

Most 19 year olds will just ask Chat GPT about all the other stuff.

Actually..... thinking about it again I have changed my mind about it being down to parents.
It would actually be good to have as part of PHSE lessons.
"Financial Life Skills" or something. I expect a lot of schools do teach this but unfortunately with teens a lot goes in one ear and out the other.
But it is also a parents responsibility because the financial situation of individual families is so different then teens need to learn and understand what is relevant to them.

Indeed. It's a poor advert for a business anyway. I wouldn't want to buy an educational product from someone who has never bothered (or has never been capable enough) to teach their own children simple life skills.

Taxes!

Financial skills are taught as part of the PSHE curriculum. I used to teach it and we had a programme of outside speakers in from various agencies. The problem is after that unit of learning is finished, you are on to the next topic. How much pupils retain I am not sure.

What an amazing coincidence!

So much information on the internet, which is made even easier by AI.

Lack of information cannot be an excuse but lack of motivation is probably the real reason..and teachers can't fix that

The stuff you list I would say it’s a parents job to be teaching - schools should y be teaching basic adulting

i know in many cases parents are not doing this for whatever reason but the expectation should be that it’s their job

schools should be teaching the stuff that needs specialist support - stuff that most people won’t know to a reasonable level

Excellent idea OP. To those of you saying 'it's the parents job', there are many people who don't understand money and other grown up stuff. That's how people get trapped in poverty, resorting to money lenders and so on because they don't fully grasp, eg interest rates etc. So nobody explains it to the kids. Do it OP, be as successful as Martin Lewis.

That’s a parent job.
I teach English not financial know how.

I don't really think 'real' life skills are for school. School is for education.
I do think we've generally lost the 'village' way of bringing up kids which has meant they're missing out on seeing lots of different ways of life from different households which would of shown them a lot of these things naturally rather than someone needing to sit down and teach them specifically

Because not everyone is like your dad. Not everyone possesses that kind of intellectual curiousity to want to improve their lot in life or that of their children.

Your advert sounds like you are one of the parents who think making a kid and feeding them is the max of parenting they should do😂 not great advertising tbh.

When I was in secondary we had lessons about taxes and pensions. Waste of time. No one listened/cared.

I don’t think schools have the time to give to this, I do understand if parents don’t have experience then why would the kids know.
Schools should be talking about the different routes/costs to education, DDs sixth form do this.,

Credible?

They’re magic, didn’t you know that? Magic.

I wouldn’t wait for an explanation though. You’ve got the whole of the internet to find the explanation from.

No, that was History.

Physics teachers just came up with some specious nonsense about electrons then disappeared off to the resource cupboard as usual.

Come to think if it, I have no idea why that class required two teachers. Possibly because if they backed each other up then the lies about magnets appeared more plausible.

I don't think anyone would expect an English teacher to be teaching financial knowledge any more than we'd expect an English teacher to teach PE or Textiles.

Well if you're right, OP has admitted to being one of the "many people who don't understand money and other grown up stuff" given that apparently they have failed to teach their (now adult) child anything of the sort. So I think the chance of him emulating Martin Lewis is low.