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What do you wish they taught you in school?

totm life skills

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#1 Rocket

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 06:29 AM

Has this been done? I don't know but I heard this on the radio this morning and thought it would be an interesting topic.

 

What is something you wish and/or think should have been taught in school? Life skills!

 

Me:

- I wish they would have taught me how to do taxes, I'm a pro now, but still that's a valuable life lesson.

- How to change a tire.. thankfully I haven't had to do this (yet) but I have no idea how to do this.

- Money management. I learned how to write a check and fill out an envelope, but nothing about managing money.

 

I'll add more later



#2 Swim

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 06:41 AM

For me 

I suck at cooking a lot

I know some schools offer a sort of program like that

But like when Im on my own its gonna be a pain in the ass learning to cook

So I kinda wish they taught me how to cook so I don't have to eat instant noodles whenever I'm too lazy to go out


Edited by Swim, 22 June 2016 - 06:41 AM.


#3 Katya

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 06:47 AM

Anything related to real life, the list is immense. We get taught a shit ton of useless crap that we'll never need. But basic adult life things? "Nop."



#4 talbs

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 06:48 AM

I think they should teach personal finance. Things such as taxes, budgeting, credit/loans, interest, retirement/401k etc. I have so many adult friends that don't have the slightest clue about how any of that works, and they're pushing 30 years old. For me personally, I wish we would have had coding/programming classes when I was in school. I know a lot of high schools are implementing that now, but when I was in school, all we had was keyboarding.



#5 Fikri

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 06:48 AM

i was swamped with homework and hardly had any social life during my schooldays and you want me to think something to add to the syllabus? HELL NO. :/

 

but i agree with you on the money management thing... i'm totes rubbish at that.



#6 Sirius

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 06:56 AM

How to effectively interview for a job, how to responsibly build your credit, how to drive a manual transmission car (stick shift), organizational skills (instead of just giving you a planner and telling you to write shit down, or to keep your shit in a folder - teach an effective system)... I'm sure I'll think of others.



#7 talbs

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:13 AM

How to effectively interview for a job, how to responsibly build your credit, how to drive a manual transmission car (stick shift), organizational skills (instead of just giving you a planner and telling you to write shit down, or to keep your shit in a folder - teach an effective system)... I'm sure I'll think of others.

 

I think making people take/pass Drivers Ed using a manual transmission would be a good idea.



#8 Rocket

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:14 AM

How to effectively interview for a job, 

ooh yes this one! I fucking hate interviews, and I remember going for my first one while I was still in high school and I had no idea what to do or what to expect.



#9 talbs

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:16 AM

To everyone who keeps clamoring for learning about taxes in school: let's be honest, who would even pay attention in that class? If you think normal classes are boring, then yeah no.

 

Well at least they'd be exposed to it. You don't have to pay attention in biology, math, etc. either. Ten years down the road you wouldn't find those people on forums wishing someone had taught them about it a decade ago, so long as they had the chance in the first place.



#10 Katya

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:21 AM

You don't have to pay attention in biology, math, etc. either.

 

Uh, I have no idea how education system works in America, but here we do have to pay attention to those classes. Not only for the regular tests but also for the bigger exams (every three years) at the end of the year that usually covers the previous three years stuff that was (supposedly) taught.

Not to mention the scary shit national exams at the end of 12th grade that will decide if you go to college or not. Twelve years of study in one mofo scaring exam. No thank you. I'm glad I didn't have do it, because I finished 12 grade as military, which was equally scary but still better than the alternative.



#11 Rocket

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:23 AM

Uh, I have no idea how education system works in America, but here we do have to pay attention to those classes. Not only for the regular tests but also for the bigger exams (every three years) at the end of the year that usually covers the previous three years stuff that was (supposedly) taught.

 

yes you need to pay a certain amount of attention to pass the classes, but what I think he's getting at is it's not something that's really going to affect your life skill in the long run.



#12 Guest_iCarly_*

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:24 AM

How to live in general.

How to cook

How to properly clean things

How to do taxes, and work with my banking stuff.

It goes on, and it serves me more than learning fucking bible verses in spanish



#13 WarezHaxor

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:26 AM

It was the same when I was in the school in the states. Large exams on every major subject every couple years.

As for what I wish they taught...that's tough because I do think a lot of it is the parents responsibility to teach their children too. I definitely would have liked to see more advanced programming classes when I was I school...all they taught was basic and I don't really consider it as a good starting point to software engineering personally.

#14 talbs

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:41 AM

Uh, I have no idea how education system works in America, but here we do have to pay attention to those classes. Not only for the regular tests but also for the bigger exams (every three years) at the end of the year that usually covers the previous three years stuff that was (supposedly) taught.

Not to mention the scary shit national exams at the end of 12th grade that will decide if you go to college or not. Twelve years of study in one mofo scaring exam. No thank you. I'm glad I didn't have do it, because I finished 12 grade as military, which was equally scary but still better than the alternative.

 

It's a little different here, but I meant more or less what Rocket said, in that ultimately the amount of effort/attention you put in is entirely up to you, regardless of the material. Public schools have standards that have to be met for funding purposes, and often for measures of competency to advance to the next grade, but there is no "test to go to college" necessarily. The standards here are ridiculously low IMO, and if you are a student that is cut out for college anyway, you can pass public school with minimal to no effort. We take the SAT or the ACT supposedly as a measure of preparedness, but it's basically a tool for colleges to weed out poor candidates. Typically the better schools only accept people who perform well on those tests, but they also consider extracurricular activities, grades, etc. Colleges are just a business here, and if you want to go, someone will offer you admission so long as you're willing to fork over the coin.



#15 cara

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:46 AM

For me
I suck at cooking a lot
I know some schools offer a sort of program like that
But like when Im on my own its gonna be a pain in the ass learning to cook
So I kinda wish they taught me how to cook so I don't have to eat instant noodles whenever I'm too lazy to go out


It's not as helpful as it sounds. I took a cooking elective in high school but if you suck at cooking you get stuck with cleaning duties. Go figure. :p

#16 Bee

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:50 AM

Money management would have been amazing to learn in school. What I really wish I'd been taught in school though is how to code. I reckon my younger brain would have been better able absorb how to write programs.



#17 Katya

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:53 AM

I see, I see. Lol my bad, I read things too literally, and I just read it and placed it in a school environment and not thinking about its use in the future for "life skills".

Sadly our educational system is not better than yours in terms of "business" and we even have a few problems with privates schools -something that was recently uncovered, and it has been scandalous to say the least- getting money only from government and not from the parents.

Our system, looking overall, is not too bad, I guess. The biggest complain we have is the time kids spent at school. Usually, in any grade, the regular schedule for all 5 days of the week is from 8am till 5-6pm, which is ridiculous, kids don't even have time to be kids. Fortunately I live in a region that's a bit more loose about it.



#18 Tammy

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 07:59 AM

There should have been a "How to be a fully functional, independent adult class" when I moved out and started living alone I realized soooo quickly how unprepared I was :(



#19 Nanarie

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 08:02 AM

Real programming/coding, the classes on these (in high school) were a complete joke. I also wish the language programs were better and included languages I actually wanted to learn. Americans are super egocentric and there's not enough importance placed on learning another language.

#20 Karla

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 08:03 AM

I wish schools/programs offered classes on how to pay bills & taxes, how to spot fraud, manage money, buy property...Y'know, adult stuff when you become an adult.



#21 Coops

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 08:13 AM

Everyone is saying taxes and stuff.

 

But honestly, if they equip us with the knowledge on how to find information we need, that'd be good (ie. how to make phone calls to request information, use the Internet for etc). It's such a basic skill. I've met adults who don't know how to look up how to do their taxes, or write an inquiry letter, or a resume. They are like, 'oh it's so hard' and then they ask someone to do it for them. I don't know if it's just laziness, or ignorance, or both. I agree with @ortinmost of us likely wouldn't have cared about that class, there are exceptions in every case. But I also agree, the information and classes should be available.



#22 Romy

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 08:23 AM

Besides everything that was already mentioned

 

1) How to hem a hole in a shirt or sweater.

2) What's dry clean and what isn't.

3) How to wash my clothes correctly.

4) How to save and invest money.

 

These are all things I've taught myself over the years (except for sowing) that would have been super useful to know.



#23 Bee

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 09:32 AM

Besides everything that was already mentioned

 

1) How to hem a hole in a shirt or sweater.

2) What's dry clean and what isn't.

3) How to wash my clothes correctly.

4) How to save and invest money.

 

These are all things I've taught myself over the years (except for sowing) that would have been super useful to know.

I actually learnt how to sew in school lol. We had coursework on it and shit. It's helpful when I need to fix a button.



#24 Ali

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 11:50 AM

I learnt everything I needed in school. *shrugs* Helps that if you're not self-employed in the UK, you don't have to do too much about your tax.

But I learnt to sew, I learnt to cook, I did enough public speaking to get me through interviews... I'm a very high functioning adult really.

#25 Waser Lave

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Posted 22 June 2016 - 12:31 PM

Money management would have been amazing to learn in school. What I really wish I'd been taught in school though is how to code. I reckon my younger brain would have been better able absorb how to write programs.

 

I'm fairly sure the only computer-related skill I learned in school would be how to use Mail Merge and I have yet to use that a single time since... IT classes would be focused solely on the basics of word processing, spreadsheets, powerpoint, Access etc so I would hope it's a bit different these days with the rise of the Raspberry Pi and so on. Programming has made a bigger difference in both my university and work career than anything else (and I didn't do anything IT related in either) and it's something which not a lot of people have experience in, it's never too late to pick it up. ;)

 

Besides everything that was already mentioned

 

1) How to hem a hole in a shirt or sweater.

2) What's dry clean and what isn't.

3) How to wash my clothes correctly.

4) How to save and invest money.

 

These are all things I've taught myself over the years (except for sowing) that would have been super useful to know.

 

1) Basic stitching is so ridiculously simple that even I know how to do it, you can learn it in like 5 minutes. I sewed up a hole in my old jeans the other day and I'm fairly sure the part I fixed is stronger than, and will last longer than, the rest of the denim. :p

2) In my experience unless it's quite expensive (to the point that you wouldn't want to have to replace it) then you can machine wash pretty much anything, even if it says dry clean only, just use a coolish wash.

3) I just put most things in together (excluding suits). :rolleyes: Nothing has shrunk or changed colour so far so I'm sticking with it.

4) Learn the power of compound interest, start as young as possible even if it's only a small amount.

 

I learnt everything I needed in school. *shrugs* Helps that if you're not self-employed in the UK, you don't have to do too much about your tax.

But I learnt to sew, I learnt to cook, I did enough public speaking to get me through interviews... I'm a very high functioning adult really.

 

You don't really realise how much you learned in school until you actually think about it, do you? I can also sew and cook (how's that for gender equality in teaching), I can change a plug without killing myself, I can fix toilets and other basic plumbing stuff, I can grow plants relatively successfully, I worked for Yorkshire Bank when I was 10/11 (child labour), woodwork, public speaking etc. We actually do a surprisingly good job over here...





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