Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Knight of Fools]

But, if all people are smarter, that makes me dumber because I am no longer more intelligent than everyone else.


I think higher education is much better at introducing critical thinking skills in society than grade school is. Honestly, I think High School should end at the age of 16 (We'd save millions!), with college and/or specialty training to follow. Most kids have an idea of what they want to do at 16, and simple tests can be used to help out the kids who aren't so decisive. Critical thinking skills will be introduced sooner, and even kids who don't go to a College can receive specialty job training, such as electronics, sales, hair dressing, etc. This takes a huge load off of both employees searching for jobs, since they'll actually have experience, and employers looking to hire folks, since they'll know who has experience. For the underachievers, they'll be able to get an unskilled job and won't be any worse off if they'd spent another 2 years pretending to learn. From my experience, most of the stuff I learned in the last few years of high school were reiterated in college (Besides math - I actually had to take starter courses because my high school didn't even bother teaching me enough to get into college.)

It's a much harsher system, but one that would save money, and get people into the work force sooner. Kids will also live with their parents for a couple years while working, studying, or looking for work. This will have the effect of parents (Gasp!) actually teaching their kids so they can get their foot out the door. For less disciplined households, though, underage crime might be a problem.

I believe a similar system is already in place in Germany and Britain, but I'm not sure. America's system seems more focused on an older style of teaching rich parents' kids, who didn't really need special job training, they just needed to know some math and basic thinking skills so they could manage their parents' fortune when they grew up. Sure, an education is important, but America's is too general to give any special job opportunities. It's a pity, because it seems like a whole lot of work to make sure someone can run a register after high school.


As a side note, I'm all for classes that teach 'real world' stuff that kids may never learn at home but will be inevitable anyways, but the examples in the OP are fairly vague. Stuff such as taxes, how insurance works, money management, how to get a job, social skills, and physical education classes that actually require physical effort would be great boon for any child being sent out into the world. Now-a-days, it's a blind baptism of stress and innocence, all of which can be avoided with just a few simple lessons that parents rarely teach their kids.

[Flying Dice]

As a side note, I'm all for classes that teach 'real world' stuff that kids may never learn at home but will be inevitable anyways, but the examples in the OP are fairly vague. Stuff such as taxes, how insurance works, money management, how to get a job, social skills, and physical education classes that actually require physical effort would be great boon for any child being sent out into the world. Now-a-days, it's a blind baptism of stress and innocence, all of which can be avoided with just a few simple lessons that parents rarely teach their kids.

This, so much. I know people in their 20s who drive home every weekend so their parents can do their laundry, for crying out loud. Goodness forbid they need to navigate even a 1040EZ. 

[JoshuaFH]

I always thought the American system is a relic from the days when government accommodated the agricultural community.

Or atleast, that's how I think the summer vacation came to be.

[Kilroy the Grand]

I always thought the American system is a relic from the days when government accommodated the agricultural community.

Or atleast, that's how I think the summer vacation came to be.

That is quite correct.

Honestly, I think High School should end at the age of 16 (We'd save millions!), with college and/or specialty training to follow.

The highschool I went do did in fact give students the option of going to a technical school, I went for electronics. It cost the school money to sent us there I think it was around 9-10k a year per student... But I never really got into the costs of the situation.

[mainiac]

Gee, if only there was a high school class that taught home economics.  I'm sure that kids would sign up for it in droves and not consider it a joke class.
If only there was some sort of community college where people could go to learn specialty job training for low prices at a flexible schedule.  If only they offered certificate programs that didn't require a degree and were open admission and had many high school students participate in these classes and programs.  If only such programs existed in the US I'm sure that my mother, father, brother and self would have all participated in them.

If the US was better at teaching critical thinking, would you stop wondering why stuff that exists doesn't exist?

[Tellemurius]

Gee, if only there was a high school class that taught home economics.  I'm sure that kids would sign up for it in droves and not consider it a joke class.
If only there was some sort of community college where people could go to learn specialty job training for low prices at a flexible schedule.  If only they offered certificate programs that didn't require a degree and were open admission and had many high school students participate in these classes and programs.  If only such programs existed in the US I'm sure that my mother, father, brother and self would have all participated in them.

If the US was better at teaching critical thinking, would you stop wondering why stuff that exists doesn't exist?

Can't i just go to school to learn shit and not worry about this at all? Fuck sakes i already work hard enough to get my grades up. is that enough to consider critical thinking?

[Meansdarling]

These are all classes I would like to have taken in middle school.

1. How to Not Use the Internet- focus on using privacy setting and appropriate use of photos
2. Culture Studies- focus is on understanding and demystifying other cultures
3. Money Money Money- focus on spending wisely, use of coupons, and other spend thrift ways

[Ancre]

Regarding the OP : For the two first points, I don't think it's adding school classes that will solve the problem. I mean, most of the general knowledge people lack (from your post, proper english, basics in history, geography, physics and science) is stuff that school already tries to teach. Obviously, it failed, whatever the reason (that's another topic). If it failed, adding more of it won't fix the problem. Fix school so that it actually succeeds at teaching instead.

The third one I find it unnecessary. As others said, most people won't ever need to survive in the wilderness. I find the idea of a "general life" class (taxes, getting a job and all that + cooking, laundry and all that stuff that it ridiculously hard to learn because everyone expects you to know it) much smarter and useful. I would have gone to a class like that instead of skipping school like I usually did.

Also, swimming. School doesn't teach you how to swim ? It really should. It's the only thing I ever learned in physical education class (it went downhill after that, why did every teacher thought I knew the rules of soccer just because I'm a dude ? that's sexist). It's really useful to know. I vote for that.

[DrPoo]

The first one seems... odd.  It's quite difficult to identify "common misconceptions"... the ones you talk about seem pretty isolated, and just teaching people against those specific ones seems counterproductive.  In those cases a better knowledge of physics (specifically how gravitational fields work, which you should come to sooner or later) and IT would help more than just informing them about those specific things.

The second one is better but something I'd hope you'd naturally gain as you go through education, rather than having an extra class for (especially since your examples are covered by existing subjects).  Jazz goes under music education, food goes under cooking.  "language beyond slang and everyday language" should be covered by English while "basic physics and essential history and culture" could be serviced by physics and history (with maybe some geography for present day culture.

Leaving aside the sexism apparently inherent in your third section... well, I can see why you'd want to teach some basic skills to people, but the fact of the matter is a lot of people won't ever really need to go out into the wilderness.  Swimming sounds good as MSH said since almost everyone will be near water in their lives, but I feel like teaching kids survival skills like cooking and running a household would be better than wilderness stuff.  There are plenty of extracurricular groups (see: scouts) for doing that kind of thing too.

Sorry if it sounded sexist ahah, it wasent intended, boys also have some weird ideas. I wrote this 2 in the night remember guys.

[Heron TSG]

Also, swimming. School doesn't teach you how to swim ? It really should.

Eh, I probably would have failed, then. With my body composition, it is literally impossible for me to swim without a herculean effort. 10-20 meters is about my maximum before I have to stop. Oh, and treading water cannot be done without an external floatation device. It'd be a nice skill to have, though, I'll grant you that.

[klingon13524]

Not everyone's interested in learning how to cut up a skirt to bandage a wound or game design, people will always have some deficiencies in what they know. If we try to make stupid people learn this stuff, they'll forget in a month.

[Loud Whispers]

Not everyone's interested in learning how to cut up a skirt to bandage a wound or game design, people will always have some deficiencies in what they know. If we try to make stupid people learn this stuff, they'll forget in a month.

Hell, cutting up a skirt?

Pretty self explanatory...

A first aid course on the other hand, would be something useful to teach to 10 y/o's and above.

[DrPoo]

Not everyone's interested in learning how to cut up a skirt to bandage a wound or game design, people will always have some deficiencies in what they know. If we try to make stupid people learn this stuff, they'll forget in a month.

Hell, cutting up a skirt?

Pretty self explanatory...

A first aid course on the other hand, would be something useful to teach to 10 y/o's and above.

That was what i was meaning, sorry i am a horrible non-fiction writer

[scriver]

I guess I should consider myself lucky, because the Swedish school already (at least tries to) teaches everything mentioned above, except wilderness survival (which I personally doesn't see much use in, though basic orientation should be taught as part of gym class). Swimming, critical thinking, basic "household skills" (including household economics and our rights as customers), nutrition/food and health/exercise knowledge, basic first aid, lots of stuff (the "common knowledge" thing is just taken care of by all the usual classes), it's already on the curriculum. It doesn't always stick, of course, but then again not even math stuck around in my head for more than a year or two after high school.

[Dutchling]

I guess I should consider myself lucky, because the Swedish school already (at least tries to) teaches everything mentioned above, except wilderness survival (which I personally doesn't see much use in, though basic orientation should be taught as part of gym class). Swimming, critical thinking, basic "household skills" (including household economics and our rights as customers), nutrition/food and health/exercise knowledge, basic first aid, lots of stuff (the "common knowledge" thing is just taken care of by all the usual classes), it's already on the curriculum. It doesn't always stick, of course, but then again not even math stuck around in my head for more than a year or two after high school.

Same here in Dutch schools.
I learned first aid when I was 11 (mouth to mouth on fake persons ftw!) and I even learned how to iron my clothes (read: I put my shirt on fire).