Get Schooled

By V for Vendetta

November 10, 2008 11:18 AM | Link to this

Laura, I fear you’ve opened up a can of worms with just one pair of words—“at home.”

Allow me to be the first to pile on the vitriolic comments:

As a teacher, I am already expected to teach students everything under the sun. My subject in particular tends to be a catch all that is supposed to teach them various skills and content-related knowledge, all the while requiring absolute attention and honest to goodness behavior. That, of course, doesn’t even get into the information we are required to teach in regards to many of our asinine standardized tests, which seem to have little bearing on that wonderful thing we call life.

All of that responsibility would be easy to live up to if we were provided with consistently kind individuals who were able to grasp—even on the smallest level—the importance of having a competitive education in today’s ever-changing society.

But we’re not. Not even close.

Instead we’re provided with mindless husks, children so blatantly self absorbed and uninterested in education, improvement, and LIFE, that they will barely lift a finger to get out of their own ways. This complete apathy is combined with a wonderful sense of entitlement and a venemous attitude. There is no respect. There is no attempt to care. There isn’t even “please” and “thank you.”

I have no problem teaching my subject, the skills that go with it, and, heck, even the crap that appears on the many (increasing) standardized tests. BUT I REFUSE TO TEACH MANNERS. Students should learn how to be respectful individuals LONG before they walk through my door. Basic human decency should be a higher priority, and so should an understanding—not a necessarily a love for, but an understanding—of why education is important.

OK, JimD. It’s your turn. :-)

By jim d

November 10, 2008 11:38 AM | Link to this

V,

I don’t mean to be critical of our creator but, in my humble opinion, this is where God really screwed up.

We should have just been born old and aged back into adolescence. It would have cured many of the worlds problems.

How’s that V??

By fred

November 10, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this

We need to teach decision making skills, we need to teach that there are repercussions, good or bad, for each decision that we make and we need to teach how to best guess what the repercussions of any decision are.

By V for Vendetta

November 10, 2008 12:20 PM | Link to this

LOL! JimD.

OK, ya got me there … .

By DB

November 10, 2008 12:28 PM | Link to this

Ooh, fun topic!

Basic Banking/Finance: 1. How to balance a checkbook/Quicken whatever.
2. How to deposit and write checks 3. How to shop for a checking account 4. Different savings vehicles — money market mutual funds, IRAs, etc. (show them how saving a small amount now will make them a millionaire down the road.) 5. Avoid credit cards like the plague 6. What real life costs: Insurance, utilities, housing, etc.

Car Stuff: 1. How to take care of a car (oil changes, checking tire pressure, etc.) 2. How to shop for an auto loan

Interview Smarts: 1. How to apply for a job (have social security number handy, etc.) 2. How to write a resume 3. How to interview

Interpersonal Skills 1. How to write thank you notes (you’d be amazed how many kids do not know how to address an envelope or where to put a stamp!) (Also useful after interviews) 2. Manners 3. Pick up after yourself 4. Making good decisions for yourself 5. Goal-setting 6. Basic grooming

Survival: 1. Be able to cook five different meals 2. How to comparison shop at the grocery store. 3. How to plan meals 4. How to sort laundry 5. How to iron a shirt 6. How to clean a bathroom 7. How to run a dishwasher 8. How to make a bed

By DeKalb Mother

November 10, 2008 1:13 PM | Link to this

Consumer Math! Instead of requiring every high school student in the state to master the equivalent of Algebra II by graduation, we should make sure that every student understands why making a minimum monthly payment of $10 will never pay off a $2000 credit card bill that is accruing monthly interest and finance charges.

By Mil Mom

November 10, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this

I think the following would be good lessons for students to learn before venturing out into life by themselves: 1.Sex Education (that is not Abstinence based. ie: condoms, STD’s, and pregnancy) 2. Money and bills (show kids just how much rent, utlites, cable, phone, insurance, food, healt coverage etc etc will cost and possibly how to budget, the do’s and don’ts of credit cards, and savings since Social Security won’t be around to use when they reach the age) 3. Resume and interview skills 4. Basic car care (check oil, battery, attach bat charger, check tires, change a tire! etc etc) 5. Basic cooking and laundry(there should not be an excuse to be twenty something and not be able to use a stove/ oven etc. also twenty (even tirty something) should not be calling mommie on how to wash clothes) 6. for females (and some males) some basic self defense skills (and a dose of common sense) These are just some, however parent should also be teaching many of these skills, it should not be left up to the schools alone. I was lucky, my dad prepared me for most of these things, but having some extra help from school on life moeny managment would’ve been very benificial to me instead of having to learn some lessons for myself. But then your left with the fact that even if school did tech these things, how many kids would actually remeber it when the time came?

By Leia

November 10, 2008 1:50 PM | Link to this

I agree that the skills all of you have mentioned should be taught by the time a student finishes high school, but, should these skills be taught at school? All of these skills you have mentioned were taught to me at home by my parents. The only students who learn these things at school are the sped kids.

By Harper's Mama

November 10, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this

I think that our job is to teach students how to learn, and that learning is valuable. Learning how to cook five meals is as easy as typing www.google.com and then typing in “recipes”. Balancing a checkbook seems a little silly, since we have online banking. Teaching them how to spell and write a grammatically correct sentence? That’s a whole other ballgame.
What we need to be doing is teaching students how to find information that they are looking for. If we can simply teach them how to learn and the value of learning, we have done our jobs.

By DB

November 10, 2008 2:32 PM | Link to this

Harper’s Mama, I agree that “learning how to learn” is a valuable skill, but they often have to know what they don’t know for that to work. Heck, I’ve worked with girls who have NEVER made cookies from scratch — and didn’t know the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon! And balancing a checkbook is NEVER silly — they may have on-line banking, but if they don’t get a grip on their finances early on, they will be playing catchup for a long, long time. How many kids do you know that think that the balancea at the ATM is how much money they really have, regardless of outstanding checks or upcoming recurring charges?

By Ernest

November 10, 2008 4:34 PM | Link to this

We can wrap many of these suggestions into one category, Life Skills. The questions still remains, how much time out of the school day do we want to spend on this? If we decide it would be helpful to cover these ‘skills’ during the school day, who decides what and how they should be taught?

By Paula

November 10, 2008 6:57 PM | Link to this

Great topic First, our younger children are still in a small Catholic school that has a cotillion class for middle school students. This class teachers basic manners, introductions, buffet/dining etiquette, and basic dance steps.

I have my own list of lessons that I make sure my children know before they go off to college. The list includes basic cooking, sewing and laundry skills, how to clean a house, mow a yard, change a tire, even paint a room. The list includes important financial skills such as balancing a check book, and other skills like making a doctor appointment or airline reservation. These are lessons that should be taught at home by the parent but, unfortunately, few parents take the time to do so. I know, I know, so many parents don’t have the time, etc. I learned these skills from my parents who worked a full time job and farmed so don’t tell me parents today are too busy. Quite frankly, they expect the school to do the job for them.

By Sam

November 10, 2008 7:12 PM | Link to this

News flash for V for Vendetta…

You teach manners whether you want to admit it or not. In fact, you cannot not teach your wonderful charges manners. Have you ever asked them, in some way or another, what manners they’ve picked up from you? Dare do so and you just might get a surprise or two.

By Lee

November 10, 2008 8:53 PM | Link to this

In the 8th grade, my daughter’s private school had a Research class. Took the students through the entire process of writing a research paper - choosing the topic, library research, internet research, how to prepare an outline, how to cite and prepare bibliographies, etc, etc. My daughter’s paper came in at 30 pages. Quite impressive for a thirteen year old.

A good skill to have if you’re planning on attending college.

By catlady

November 10, 2008 8:56 PM | Link to this

Aw, h3ll, let’s make the schools and teachers in particular responsible for EVERYTHING and criticize them for what they do. This week our school (teachers) is doiing something special for the community 4 of the five days. Not the PTO, but the teachers. People who have a life outside of the school.

Our kids are sorely in need of modeling of polite address, polite conversation, conventions of behavior, thinking of someone besides self. They seem to hear only “Sit down. Shut up. Don’t bother me. NO!”

By TheBlogger

November 11, 2008 10:55 AM | Link to this

Lee As a high school teacher, I wonder how many of those 8th graders will remember how to write that term paper once they enter the doors of their high school. From my experience, zero of them will admit to remembering, and maybe only 5% will actually remember.

Most parents do such a horrible job of reinforcing content, especially over the summer, kids quickly forget from year to year (and sometimes from week to week).

But, hey! It’s always the teacher’s fault, right?

By TheBlogger

November 11, 2008 10:57 AM | Link to this

catlady After teaching for many years, I am beginning to have the opinion that we (society) should just take all kids from the hospital the moment they are born and raise them properly. Teachers are already playing the role of parent as well as teacher - why not? And, with every passing year, society expects for schools to solve every social problem that exists. So again, why not?

By Tony

November 11, 2008 7:37 PM | Link to this

Most of the skills listed above are easily taught in homes where chores are an everyday part of life. Including your children in planning for vacations, budgeting, car purchases, large appliances and other big expenses will help build their understanding of the real world.

To try to teach budgeting and balancing checkbooks to kids whose parents go week to week, have the phone cut off, power cut off, and beg for help is futile.

Let’s be reminded: Kids don’t care what a teacher knows until they know the teacher cares.

By SET

November 13, 2008 7:01 PM | Link to this

OK People…

What you are beating around the bush here are attributes of CLASS.

Do you want the public schools to teach mores that are different for each class? Do you really think a school can teach ghetto kids mores and values that their parent, relatives, neighbors and friends have no use at all for? Do you believe you can teach present oriented people behaviors that are critically dependent on future orientation?

Well you can’t. Not without (if successful) changing the child into something that no longer fits his own class. And that would create new problems.

Remember the book “Brave New World” where Alphas were Alphas, and Betas were Betas, and if you tried to get them to act any other way they went nuts?

Plus there is that saying about leading horses to water…

The best a school can do to change the students social mobility away from an inferior level to something higher is to 1) be open and truthful about what you are doing and 2) make the “classes” optional so nobody wastes their time trying to do something they have no intention of pursuing.

If you are offering a program that does exclude inferior social classes (why play games when we discuss all this - ) it would be best to post to the extent possible the prerequisites and requirements so that you don’t have people accidently showing up and having to be expelled for being themselves. This is a major problem with police academies and nursing programs and other vocational tech fields where underclass mores and behaviors are never tolerated.

Our service academies have such signs up as “We don’t lie, cheat or steal or tolerate among us those that do”… to kind of give the new recruits a clue… Maybe the High Schools should be doing the same.