Stuff not taught in schools but should be ?

[J4CKO]

Not having a go at schools, they are at the behest of the government and National Curriculum, but Dick Dastardly made a great point in another thread that they dont teach kids any aspects of how to manage money.

So, what other stuff do they never teach that would benefit kids in more than what they currently teach ? a lot seems to be theoretical and not that practical, or just about passing an exam, but does it produce useful people at the end or do they need to learn that at home or as they progress outside school ?


Putting a shelf up ?
Wiring a Plug ? (they may do this, no sure)


Sure there are loads of other things ?

[Vaud]

I'd rather the education system focused on teaching the basics well.

Maybe add in:

Balancing a household budget
Understanding that debt isn't "free money"
Basics of our democratic system


And at the same time, parents stepping up to teach what they can at home. Wiring plugs for example.

[Moonhawk]

The highway code.........

[ALBA MELV]

personal money management

[768]

I was taught to wire a plug in school. And put a shelf up.

Don't recall the highway code coming up though. Dread to think what road education would be like in a school environment.

I could have done with a lot of software programming on non-MS platforms but I'm not sure that applies to everyone.

[frg530]

We were taught how to wire a plug at school but that was over 20 years ago.

I wish we'd been taught Spanish not French and/or German.

I think kids should be educated on taxes and finances to mainly include mortgages

[alorotom]

35 here and never needed to wire a plug, can't see the need for that at all

We did introduction to driving lessons at 15/16 with a company brought in from external which was great

Fitness, healthy living, etc... should have more emphasis

Agree on financial management

[twing]

Correct use of commas, apostrophes and question marks would be a good start.

[ecs]

Aren't those the sorts of things you learn from your parents? It's funny how people thing everything under the sun should be taught in school these days. Saying that, personal finance education would be quite a practical addition to maths classes - would make you realise why you should be learning things like percentages e.t.c.

[DanielSan]

Teach them how democracy works and that when people vote they do know what they're doing? And that also means if things don't go the way you want you can just instantly accuse people who don't share your views of being clueless idiots.

[J4CKO]

ecs said:

Are those the sorts of things you learn from your parents? It's funny how people thing everything under the sun should be taught in school these days. Saying that, personal finance education would be quite a practical addition to maths classes - would make you realise why you should be learning things like percentages e.t.c.

True, not having a go at schools but parents are variable and sometimes not always present, or at least not both, and if they have never learn something they cant pass it on.

[AyBee]

- Financial management
- Basic politics
- How to get a job

[RizzoTheRat]

My wife teaches maths, they've just stopped doing "use of maths" which always struck me as a very useful subject to teach some basic stuff like finance and probability to kids who weren't up to doing pure maths.

[Vocal Minority]

DanielSan said:

Teach them how democracy works and that when people vote they do know what they're doing? And that also means if things don't go the way you want you can just instantly accuse people who don't share your views of being clueless idiots.

Do people just wait for it to not go the way they want to do that?!

A basic household economy is a good one.

[pitchfork]

How to cook basic stuff.

(How) to look beyond the headlines.

(How) to look at the non-financial cost of things.

[egomeister]

Personal responsibility, everything else becomes much easier after that...

[steveo3002]

basic diy
car maintenence

that you cant spend more than you earn and have to sometimes save up or go without etc

[WestyCarl]

ecs said:

Saying that, personal finance education would be quite a practical addition to maths classes - would make you realise why you should be learning things like percentages e.t.c.

Yup, my 13yr old daughter struggles with maths and therefore has a short attention span with it. However frame the question "Primarini has 25% off a £10 dress how much do you save to spend on other clothes and she's all over it"

I guess it'll be the same with my son, except the example will be "if you have to pay someone 25% to buy you £10 worth of special brew" how much will it cost.

[RizzoTheRat]

pitchfork said:

(How) to look beyond the headlines.

I'd widen that a bit to Critical Thinking in general, but news stories and headlines are a great example of it. The amount of utter bks and downright lies that sweep through social media these days is astounding.

[Rebew]

We were taught how to wire a plug when I first started secondary school, this was mostly because our science teacher was doing it anyway so gathered the whole class round to watch, it was fairly handy and I've probably had to do it myself about 10 times since but its also given me a bit more of an understanding of basic electrics so has helped with rewiring light switches and ceiling pendulums etc.

Why they don't teach anything about bookkeeping and taxes I'll never know, it's something that anyone who starts their own business will benefit from and as an accountant I am shocked by the amount of successful and well educated people who have no idea at all about the basics of record keeping and personal tax.

Basic vehicle maintenance would be useful too, I know most people have no interest in this but most people also don't have any interest in long division and they still have to learn that! The basics of keeping a vehicle road worthy such as checking tyres and fluids would be far more beneficial than a lot of things I learnt in a physcs lesson!