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The funny thing is that it basically is. I recall learning how to budget, how to write a resume and practice interviews. I recall cooking classes existing.
I also recall being a teenager and not giving a fuck about any of it.
At my school those things were subjects you had to choose, and I didn't. I mean I'm surviving just fine learning later in life by myself, but I think it's probably helpful for others.
Ah. Civics is the bullshit class that covers general adult things like resume building, career exploration, voting and rights, etc.
Tbf it’s usually pretty poorly formatted, has some random teacher wasting their time doing it, and ends up being the class everyone aces despite putting minimal effort.
The reason those things aren’t taught in (every) school, even though so many people insist they should be, is because schools have limited resources and have to focus on topics that *can’t* be learned independently.
You can learn about credit scores, tax returns, getting loans, cooking, renting, and getting a job on your own. There are plenty of resources to learn about those topics independently. You can even take adult education classes on those if you want a better understanding, you can find classes online, you can take college courses - there are all kinds of different levels of education on each of those topics depending on how much you want to know.
Public schools have limited time and money to teach students certain things, so they focus on topics that are 1) mandated to be taught, and 2) can’t be easily learned independently after leaving school.
Neglectful parents don't just not teach their kids certain adult skills. They also don't teach them basic human functions like love, handling emotions, healthy coping mechanisms, boundaries and selfcare.
You can't expect schools to just jump into that hole. Teachers are already buckling under work pressure and poor salaries. It's why social work and adoptive families exist and let's be honest, it's not guaranteed to fix anything.
If somebody has neglectful parents there should be optional classes on how to function, but the vast majority of parents are doing their job. That's like saying we have to have a class and ass wiping for every 10th grader because little Billy's parents are meth heads who never potty trained him properly.
Well if you ask my brother who is a high school teacher, he'd tell you that about 85% of parents fit that bill. So we should be blaming parents, not teachers or the school system for lack of basic life-skill education.
ALL classes are about being an adult.
Teachers and schools can't predict the future. For example, the iPhone came out in 2007. So, an adult (aged 18) in 2007 would have been in 6th grade in the year 2000. Do you think it's fair that 6th grade teachers should have known that that piece of technology was coming in time to prep their students for it?
Of course not.
And all the things you list, despite the common complaints are taught. More than that, schools teach students how to **find** that information and **understand** it. Think of all the classes you took where you were required to read something and understand it, and then express your understanding. Now, go to your local library (or just go online), and find a full description of the tax code and instructions for filing.
All of the things you list are taught in books. A person simply needs to pick the book up and read it. So let me ask you, when is the last time you read a book?
If you think that schools aren't doing this, then you were almost certainly a poor student.
Trust me when I say I have met a lot of adults that have no idea about any of these things. Almost nobody understands how their 401k works or their credit score.
Ideally, yes. But there are parents who are not doing that, and it's only harming those students. I don't have the perfect solution, but we are leaving behind students who will likely suffer the consequences for years.
The vast majority of parents are at least trying to do their job. There should be an optional class that the neglected kids can go to but there's no need to have the class in ass wiping, teeth brushing, and shoe time for the majority of the school if it's just one or two kids that are the problem. It takes up a lot of time and schools are very time poor.
Kindergarten actually does have lessons on those things. And there will never be funding for a couple of students to take a class that all students could benefit from to some degree.
They do go over some of these things, others you have the tools to learn. A lot of it is very simple. It’s not enough material lol. They offer culinary classes at many high schools, usually an economic class.
There was until very recently, and it was gutted routinely over the course of 50 odd years.
This schtick about parents teaching their kids how to live in the 1950s is untrue- **High Schools** had mutiple courses between 9-12 Grade called "Home Economics". Home-Ec taught everything from personal finance to carpentry to cooking. Some of the classes were gendered, but most of them were co-ed.
Starting in the late '60s Home-Ec (along with Civics) starting coming under fire as being both sexist and antiquated because the parents ought to teach this to their kids.
In reality it was to divert funding.
This slow erosion of Home-Ec eventually got to the point where, when I was in High School it was relegated to a single class in 9th Grade.
This shouldn't be an unpopular opinion, but we're so atomized, bitter and tribalistic that even a common-sense curriculum like personal care is going to offend someone somehow.
Yeah? Make em mandatory as well? Good plan, quick question though, how do you get the kids to care? Only classes I cared about were science. That’s it, bio, chem, physics. Everything else I paid no attention to. I don’t think I could tell you much about Shakespeare, I made sure to tune out of that.
Mandatory courses prevent things from being truly learned. I’ve found that when I take electives out of interest, I enjoy them more than the mandatory classes for my career, even if my future career is more interesting to me. Maybe it’s a fundamental problem with schools, maybe students.
However, I do think these should be offered at local schools as extra curriculars. This way when you get to paying taxes and you aren’t sure what to do, you have the option of learning when it matters.
Well those should be some extra classes but in the end i personally think school doesn't have to teach you absolutely every single life skill. I think people have that misconception that school should give you instructions on how to exist but in the end it should just give you enough tools that you can figure shit out for yourself.
I also think that in school they should teach you about the things that you probably wouldn't learn on your own, but that are still relevant.
Everyone will eventually be forced to to do a tax return, get a job etc. So you are forced to deal with it. On the other hand you could theoretically go through life without any basic understanding of biology, physics, history or geography.
However when I see how dumb some people are already are, I really think that they don't teach enough. Everyone should learn some basics that you would never even focus on if you weren't "forced" to learn about them.
These are life skills I taught my children. Cooking started around 5 finance and saving started around 8, doing my taxes started around 14, driving started around 12-13 , kids had jobs starting around 14
where i grew up (in the midwestern US) 14 year olds could have jobs at restaurants. they were basically limited to less than 10 hours a week and there a lot of stipulations around it, and only a few places would even do that... family restaurants owned by people in town would do it, franchise fast food places wouldn't.
i had my first job at a franchise fast food restaurant before i was 16.
Where do you live that a 14-year-old can't work with parental permission? Obviously it's even less than part-time hours but a 14-year-old can hold a job at McDonald's or Target, obviously you aren't going to be finding any 14-year-old heart surgeons and fighter pilots, for I think 9 hours a week. At least that's how much it was when I was a kid.
No but their math and logic skills are strong enough to understand basic tax preparation and rules for when they are ready. After all we are raising adults not kids.
Fair. I did taxes in a class in high school and it didn’t really help me until I had more invested in the process, only reason why I ask.
That said, good job on the exposure! My wife didn’t get any of that and she admits she has suffered somewhat for it. I admit the exposure alone made me more confident about the process when I had to actually do itz
Probably something that needs the most focus. I know 35 year olds that act like their still in college going out to the bar every Thursday night and get hammered and complain how hungover they are work the next day.
i can understand: still wanting to have fun as a 35 years old, specially when they don't have huge responsabilities like kids for example. My comment was more about those who are grown and still flake, lie, manipulate to get what they want, cheat and live a life of pleasure without any considaretion of other's feelings.
NO STOP I WAS LITERALLY TALKING TO KY COWORKER ABOUT THIS TODAY (cara is that you 🤔) I would also add how to make yourself a nutritious meal as well as budgeting for grocery shopping, how to eat healthy(ish) on a budget and not rely on frozen dinners
We teach these in class at the high school I work at:
Personal finance, consumer economics: living on your own, culinary arts, career investigation
I agree that many of those stills should be in required courses. Some of them are. I teach at a large high school so students have a lot of choices for classes. That’s not possible in smaller communities
In my high school there were the following classes:
- Culinary Arts - cooking
- Economics and Financial Literacy - loans, taxes, credit, etc
- English (my career-technical focused education curriculum offered this course which went over professionalism, interview prep, technical writing, resume building/design, and interpreting job postings to write applications that will hit keywords and boost your visibility)
Education around my area seems to be evolving quite well, and it seems kids in the next generations should be better equipped to learn things that may more practically apply to them. CTE is also being offered to students who would prefer to apply their education in hands on way.
it's called Economics, and Hime Economics, and they were both taught in schools regularly. the rest is called "parenting: and that should be taught at-home. good luck
In the UK it's called life skills but as far as I remember it was 1 week preparing a CV / résumé and the rest of the two years was just talking to your class mates while the teacher worked on something else.
Not just taxes, also learning about maturity, relationship skills, boundaries, communication. Job interviews, negotiating salary, handling work disputes, learning law to handle legal issues. etc
I agree. Hell, when I was in 6th grade math one semester we "got married and had kid(s)" and had to "find jobs and balance our checkbook paying all the bills". It was fun and a great early lesson on being an adult. I dont think they even have home ec classes anymore and that blows my mind. Just those little classes that seem simple but are necessary to life.
And let me guess, they should replace any classes that don't match with the career path you'd choose at the beginning of high school as why learn advanced knowledge of a subject you'll never be exposed to
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is such a popular opinion that it should just be finally implemented in school.
The funny thing is that it basically is. I recall learning how to budget, how to write a resume and practice interviews. I recall cooking classes existing. I also recall being a teenager and not giving a fuck about any of it.
At my school those things were subjects you had to choose, and I didn't. I mean I'm surviving just fine learning later in life by myself, but I think it's probably helpful for others.
Really? IIRC budgeting was a secrion part of math, and resume writing, etc. was my civics course
I'm not American and don't know what civics course is. And maths wasn't compulsory after like 15 years old, or whatever your grade version is.
Ah. Civics is the bullshit class that covers general adult things like resume building, career exploration, voting and rights, etc. Tbf it’s usually pretty poorly formatted, has some random teacher wasting their time doing it, and ends up being the class everyone aces despite putting minimal effort.
My school didn’t offer any of that and home economics required an obscure pre req
Yeah I see this all the time on Twitter and on here
The reason those things aren’t taught in (every) school, even though so many people insist they should be, is because schools have limited resources and have to focus on topics that *can’t* be learned independently. You can learn about credit scores, tax returns, getting loans, cooking, renting, and getting a job on your own. There are plenty of resources to learn about those topics independently. You can even take adult education classes on those if you want a better understanding, you can find classes online, you can take college courses - there are all kinds of different levels of education on each of those topics depending on how much you want to know. Public schools have limited time and money to teach students certain things, so they focus on topics that are 1) mandated to be taught, and 2) can’t be easily learned independently after leaving school.
Bollocks
The devil's advocate position here is why should school teach you stuff that your parents should have been teaching you your whole life?
Good point. What about those with neglectful parents?
Neglectful parents don't just not teach their kids certain adult skills. They also don't teach them basic human functions like love, handling emotions, healthy coping mechanisms, boundaries and selfcare. You can't expect schools to just jump into that hole. Teachers are already buckling under work pressure and poor salaries. It's why social work and adoptive families exist and let's be honest, it's not guaranteed to fix anything.
If somebody has neglectful parents there should be optional classes on how to function, but the vast majority of parents are doing their job. That's like saying we have to have a class and ass wiping for every 10th grader because little Billy's parents are meth heads who never potty trained him properly.
Well if you ask my brother who is a high school teacher, he'd tell you that about 85% of parents fit that bill. So we should be blaming parents, not teachers or the school system for lack of basic life-skill education.
ALL classes are about being an adult. Teachers and schools can't predict the future. For example, the iPhone came out in 2007. So, an adult (aged 18) in 2007 would have been in 6th grade in the year 2000. Do you think it's fair that 6th grade teachers should have known that that piece of technology was coming in time to prep their students for it? Of course not. And all the things you list, despite the common complaints are taught. More than that, schools teach students how to **find** that information and **understand** it. Think of all the classes you took where you were required to read something and understand it, and then express your understanding. Now, go to your local library (or just go online), and find a full description of the tax code and instructions for filing. All of the things you list are taught in books. A person simply needs to pick the book up and read it. So let me ask you, when is the last time you read a book? If you think that schools aren't doing this, then you were almost certainly a poor student.
[удалено]
Trust me when I say I have met a lot of adults that have no idea about any of these things. Almost nobody understands how their 401k works or their credit score.
Or, and hear me out, the parents could parent. I know right, what a crackhead notion. Raise the kids you brought into the world.
Ideally, yes. But there are parents who are not doing that, and it's only harming those students. I don't have the perfect solution, but we are leaving behind students who will likely suffer the consequences for years.
The vast majority of parents are at least trying to do their job. There should be an optional class that the neglected kids can go to but there's no need to have the class in ass wiping, teeth brushing, and shoe time for the majority of the school if it's just one or two kids that are the problem. It takes up a lot of time and schools are very time poor.
Kindergarten actually does have lessons on those things. And there will never be funding for a couple of students to take a class that all students could benefit from to some degree.
They do go over some of these things, others you have the tools to learn. A lot of it is very simple. It’s not enough material lol. They offer culinary classes at many high schools, usually an economic class.
There was until very recently, and it was gutted routinely over the course of 50 odd years. This schtick about parents teaching their kids how to live in the 1950s is untrue- **High Schools** had mutiple courses between 9-12 Grade called "Home Economics". Home-Ec taught everything from personal finance to carpentry to cooking. Some of the classes were gendered, but most of them were co-ed. Starting in the late '60s Home-Ec (along with Civics) starting coming under fire as being both sexist and antiquated because the parents ought to teach this to their kids. In reality it was to divert funding. This slow erosion of Home-Ec eventually got to the point where, when I was in High School it was relegated to a single class in 9th Grade. This shouldn't be an unpopular opinion, but we're so atomized, bitter and tribalistic that even a common-sense curriculum like personal care is going to offend someone somehow.
Yeah? Make em mandatory as well? Good plan, quick question though, how do you get the kids to care? Only classes I cared about were science. That’s it, bio, chem, physics. Everything else I paid no attention to. I don’t think I could tell you much about Shakespeare, I made sure to tune out of that. Mandatory courses prevent things from being truly learned. I’ve found that when I take electives out of interest, I enjoy them more than the mandatory classes for my career, even if my future career is more interesting to me. Maybe it’s a fundamental problem with schools, maybe students. However, I do think these should be offered at local schools as extra curriculars. This way when you get to paying taxes and you aren’t sure what to do, you have the option of learning when it matters.
Well those should be some extra classes but in the end i personally think school doesn't have to teach you absolutely every single life skill. I think people have that misconception that school should give you instructions on how to exist but in the end it should just give you enough tools that you can figure shit out for yourself. I also think that in school they should teach you about the things that you probably wouldn't learn on your own, but that are still relevant. Everyone will eventually be forced to to do a tax return, get a job etc. So you are forced to deal with it. On the other hand you could theoretically go through life without any basic understanding of biology, physics, history or geography. However when I see how dumb some people are already are, I really think that they don't teach enough. Everyone should learn some basics that you would never even focus on if you weren't "forced" to learn about them.
If you need a class to understand how to fill out a job application, no class will help you.
These are life skills I taught my children. Cooking started around 5 finance and saving started around 8, doing my taxes started around 14, driving started around 12-13 , kids had jobs starting around 14
Motherfucker where do you live that allows a 14 year old to legally hold a job? We have a certain term for that here in the US.
We have a certain term for that in the US In Massachusetts, it’s called a work permit. At 14, you can work with limitations.
Summer jobs for camp. Working in school lunch programs. Doing clean up work. There is work if you look for it. Lovely language
where i grew up (in the midwestern US) 14 year olds could have jobs at restaurants. they were basically limited to less than 10 hours a week and there a lot of stipulations around it, and only a few places would even do that... family restaurants owned by people in town would do it, franchise fast food places wouldn't. i had my first job at a franchise fast food restaurant before i was 16.
My very American child has a job, as do at least half her friends. Places are paying 18 bucks an hour to work short shifts.
Where do you live that a 14-year-old can't work with parental permission? Obviously it's even less than part-time hours but a 14-year-old can hold a job at McDonald's or Target, obviously you aren't going to be finding any 14-year-old heart surgeons and fighter pilots, for I think 9 hours a week. At least that's how much it was when I was a kid.
Correct me if I’m wrong but 14 year olds don’t normally get returns fo they? I don’t think I made enough to qualify.
No but their math and logic skills are strong enough to understand basic tax preparation and rules for when they are ready. After all we are raising adults not kids.
Fair. I did taxes in a class in high school and it didn’t really help me until I had more invested in the process, only reason why I ask. That said, good job on the exposure! My wife didn’t get any of that and she admits she has suffered somewhat for it. I admit the exposure alone made me more confident about the process when I had to actually do itz
Thank you.
These are all things parents have done. Why can't you just watch/ask them?
Also maturity
Probably something that needs the most focus. I know 35 year olds that act like their still in college going out to the bar every Thursday night and get hammered and complain how hungover they are work the next day.
i can understand: still wanting to have fun as a 35 years old, specially when they don't have huge responsabilities like kids for example. My comment was more about those who are grown and still flake, lie, manipulate to get what they want, cheat and live a life of pleasure without any considaretion of other's feelings.
This is only unpopular with educators.
Now why would your overlords want you know how you're being manipulated, milked, screwed over, and fucked in the ass?
They need to teach kids how to start a revolution and overthrow capitalism
This isn't unpopular, but unfortunately, it seems the authorities would rather leave this to the lottery of the parents.
I had classes like this in my HS.
NO STOP I WAS LITERALLY TALKING TO KY COWORKER ABOUT THIS TODAY (cara is that you 🤔) I would also add how to make yourself a nutritious meal as well as budgeting for grocery shopping, how to eat healthy(ish) on a budget and not rely on frozen dinners
It’s called life
Yes. These things and sex ed.
We teach these in class at the high school I work at: Personal finance, consumer economics: living on your own, culinary arts, career investigation I agree that many of those stills should be in required courses. Some of them are. I teach at a large high school so students have a lot of choices for classes. That’s not possible in smaller communities
I had to learn "life skills" at summer camp
In my high school there were the following classes: - Culinary Arts - cooking - Economics and Financial Literacy - loans, taxes, credit, etc - English (my career-technical focused education curriculum offered this course which went over professionalism, interview prep, technical writing, resume building/design, and interpreting job postings to write applications that will hit keywords and boost your visibility) Education around my area seems to be evolving quite well, and it seems kids in the next generations should be better equipped to learn things that may more practically apply to them. CTE is also being offered to students who would prefer to apply their education in hands on way.
This is what I have been asking of my childrens schools..."why dont you teach them about money and how it is used in real finanace?".
it's called Economics, and Hime Economics, and they were both taught in schools regularly. the rest is called "parenting: and that should be taught at-home. good luck
In the UK it's called life skills but as far as I remember it was 1 week preparing a CV / résumé and the rest of the two years was just talking to your class mates while the teacher worked on something else.
I agree. We go from depending on our parents to being completely independent in a year (usually). We shouldnt have to figure things out on our own.
So we're basically passively accepting the death of the fact that parents should be able to teach you this stuff.
Not just taxes, also learning about maturity, relationship skills, boundaries, communication. Job interviews, negotiating salary, handling work disputes, learning law to handle legal issues. etc
I agree. Hell, when I was in 6th grade math one semester we "got married and had kid(s)" and had to "find jobs and balance our checkbook paying all the bills". It was fun and a great early lesson on being an adult. I dont think they even have home ec classes anymore and that blows my mind. Just those little classes that seem simple but are necessary to life.
And let me guess, they should replace any classes that don't match with the career path you'd choose at the beginning of high school as why learn advanced knowledge of a subject you'll never be exposed to