Planning 10 - A BC Grade 10 Student's Worst Nightmare
By reichiru
@reichiru (748)
Canada
January 12, 2009 11:29pm CST
Where I live, the Ministry of Education is extremely messed up. About five years ago, they created this new course called "Planning 10" that is mandatory for every single Grade 10 student in the province. Basically the course covers things like proper resumes, workplace safety, drugs and alcohol abuse, job interviews, and other similar topics. It's basically like a health class and a "future plans" talk with your career adviser all mashed into one course that spans throughout an entire school year.
Granted, the information they teach is important to know and be aware of, but what I disliked about it is the type of material the coursework included, such as filling out repetitive charts and long videos about people accidentally cutting off their fingers and whatnot. The teachers at my school weren't really up to scratch either, and they seriously can't expect a class full of 16-year-olds to pay attention, right? They must really be kidding themselves in thinking that kids right in the rebel age would be expected to sit still in a classroom and listen to talks like this.
What are your views on this? Do you think that such a class is necessary? Have you experienced a talk or a class like this before at school from your teacher or counselor?
1 response
@phoenix25 (1541)
• United States
14 Jan 09
It certainly is an interesting idea, but it sounds like your school system is missing the mark as far as execution of this idea is concerned. There are ways they could make these things interesting, such as having a factory worker who has lost fingers come in and talk to the class about accidents in the workplace and having a question and answer session with the class rather than watching a boring video. I remember taking a health class in high school because I needed another credit to graduate. I was a senior taking this health class with a bunch of freshmen. It was a joke. The only useful thing I learned in the class was the refresher course on cpr and I also did learn how to do cpr and the heimlich maneuver on babies and got to practice it on these little baby dolls. If you ask me, high school itself is pretty much a joke. All in all, I didn't learn much that I didn't already know. Of course, I'm more of a self-educator than most people. The whole thing is about going through the motions so you can graduate and move on to living a real life. It's unfortunate that people have to take these boring and often pointless classes, but I think that in itself is preparation for the boring and pointless things that you will also have to do as an adult as well.
