Life Skills

Sort kidding but I feel today a class in manners would be so necessary as I see so many teenagers today who do not even know hot to spell manners, let alone respect. But business skills would be very important today, as so many have issues with finances long before they complete college.

I graduated school on the Gold Coast in the mid-90's & I agree that bugeting & other such life skills should be taught as I STILL have no idea how to budget & I'm in my 30's I also think that the nutrition side of home econimics (or home science to those who know it as this) should be mandatory to teach everyone about healthy eating to try & reduce obesity as there are alot of people who don't know how to eat properly/healthy & think it's all about salads & not about balancing what you eat. I also think that things like resume, job application & job interview skills ahould be taught to make it easier to be successful in finding jobs or the DREAM job. Another thing that I think should be taught is how to study properly as there are alot of people including myself who winged it through senior high school & university not knowing how to study properly at all.

Personally I feel that self defence should be taught at school, it would certainly help deter bullying and being able to stand up for yourself, if only I was taught this skill then I could have stopped the bullying throughout my childhood, teenage and even adulthood. This is a valuable tool to teach children, especially in the world we live in now which has become dangerous and hostile. Finance would also be very important and yes budgeting. I would have gladly swapped Art, History and Science for more practical things to help me in my later life.

Hi MsTickle I would say yes there should be a lot more taught these Days to prepare them for the tough Life ahead for the mistakes they will make in Life and teach them that they need to learn from them, budgeting, Parenting, and I guess lots more, basically prepare them for Life ahead

well, part of my home eco included budgeting, running a household, meal planning and other skills that were considered important in 1964-65. I also remember when I was in elementary school the middle school boys also had to take a year of that too, that would've been late 1950's. Now a days, they are teaching to the test, or making sure the kids can pass those tests that allow them to advance, and they don't learn REAL life skills. Of course, even back then, a lot of kids quit school between 8th and 11th grade - tho it seems more are doing it now than ever, or maybe I'm just around too many kids making bad life choices...

I think time management is a very good topic for students to learn today. It can be beneficial to them whether or not they choose to go on to secondary education. I also think regular old budgeting and taking care of a bank account are skills that should be incorporated into life skills training.

We had a lesson called PFL, Preparation For Life. It taught money skills, how to fill in application forms, how to dress and behave at interviews. How to change a light bulb and a fuse and how to read a gas and electricity meter amongst other useful things. It seems that it was an experiment which was only used for a few years and was replaced by other types of lesson. Even over 40 years later, I have found many things taught in that lesson helpful. Seems this type of thing would be just as useful now.

Yes I think life skills should be taught in schools. Those that you mentioned, as well as survival skills for both sexes. I taught my boys how to sew on a button, how to to laundry and cook basic food so when they went away to university they survived easily. I think girls should also be taught that every person must be able to stand on their own two feet and we need to debunk that starry-eyed misconception that a knight in shiny armour or a prince (alas he is now taken) will come along and the the pretty damsel only has to bat her beautiful eyelashes( real or false) and everything will be looked after and provided for her. I am so tired of these helpless creatures that become victims because they don't know how to live in the real world.

WE had too figure life out takes a life time to do it too huh? MAth should teach them about money they could take acounting and learn to balance a check book. THought balanceing time was something you taughtr yourself to do. TO me ther was so much in school that didnt help out in the world unless you were going to be a writter like you am sure that litature helped alot that were to be juornalists and writters but to me I never reall yy use what I learned in thre for I am not a writter. ANd I do know my grammer isnt what I lerned in school but something I learned to gt along with people I in countered. MAth and computers is the main things to learn about now it was always math with out it nothing would be built and nothing new would be invented. COmmunicating now thats something that they could learn to do more off like letting it all out and not bottle every thing inside. In my family when kids were growning up we held something like a round table we would set down and talk of every thing on our minds talk about what was troubling to them and what our days were like. If dad had to work me and the kids would talk.

When kids leave school they have had no life experience of what it's like to live in the real world, and I think it comes as a shock to some! They will have some life skills taught to them by their parents (hopefully), but I think it should be taught in schools as well - like learning how to budget, manage money, relationships, parenting, etc. When they leave school they would certainly be better equipped to face and deal with the real world. Great discussion Ms Tickle.

It would not be a bad idea for schools to go back to offering homemaking and shop classes in addition to business classes, etc. Open to everybody though, not automatically divided by gender.

I totaly agree in what youn are saying! So many adults go out in the world and they are clueless about money and finaces! I was! Mostly becuase my parents never told me what I need to know and when I asked I never got an answer! Time management would be a ggod class,too! Alot of humans have no idea to balance their time! I think that is why some marriages fall apart! Same with people who have kids! Some young people can figure this out on their own or their families can hlp them do it! The way some parents are now adays I think the schools should teach some of these classes!

At my school, we males were taught cooking as well and the girls also got to learn some woodworking skills, but these subjects were elective subjects in later years, so the sexes naturally divided themselves into these categories mostly due to conditioning from society. I think that there should be more personal development, nutrition and health as well as money management and financial subjects. At school in my day we were taught very little about these areas. There is a company here in Australia called 21st Century Academy which teaches these things to adults who missed out on learning these skills at school. The founder of the company has a book called "What I didn't learn at school but wish I had". I went through their home study program and 4 day seminar in 2006. I quit my job as a panel beater the same year and have never looked back! Budgeting, communication skills and time management which you mentioned are all covered in the course and seminar along with comprehensive information on share trading, property investment, asset protection and earning online. I think people at least need to have a basic understanding of how the financial markets work. How money is literally created out of thin air by banks and large corporations. The sooner in life, people gain knowledge of all of the above, the better.

...Hi there Ms Tickle, Hope you are well. I think that is a great .Quite frankly I also think thst it is long overdue. A rehaul of the American school curriculum is definetly needed and things that would put you more in touch with the real world and day to day living should be a part of high school learning. Money management for one as you mentioned would be good, certainly a part of that might be how to simply balance a checkbook. The ins and outs of obtaining an apartment, setting up utilities and some elements of buying a house, what is a mortgage? The importance of saving. Things that are a part of functioning as an adult. Great discussion subject. Take care.

exactly. they should be taught all of that these days so they will understand what happens if you dont save, be careful and savy about such things. because most are not going to learn it at home.

Thankfully we still have woodworking and home economics in our schools. However, I do wish high schools and colleges give out more courses such as social skills, time management, and finding your path in life. Instead, we get stuck with memorizing the rhyme the meter of the haiku or whatnot.

I think there should be a course on Marriage. Not family, although, that may be interesting too, but the politics of marriage and how it works in each state and the laws about divorce. There should also be an informative class about raising children, not like teaching them how, but like a sociology class about the details what people 'usually' go through when raising children. But besides those, I really agree with your subjects on money and time management.

Hi friend, I remember that at my time the same things were taught at school here. But I ducked the home ec. class and took an art class instead. It so happened then that when I got married at 18 I did not know how to boil water without burning it. I can´t say my experience was a onrmal one as I started the University at 16 years of age and had my first child 4 days before my 19th birthday. I still think that it is family more than school what prepares children for adulthood. I lived in a family who loved and respected each other and seeked that in my marriage and in my whole life. I think we were more aware of the value of money then because there was less of it around. I never had the amount of clothes my granddaughter has and I never gave my chidren the amount of presents my grandchildren receive. Society has changed in a lot of ways and, although I still think it was better then , my children think that it´s ok to buy presents everyday. Whatever we do, whatever we teach, the youngsters will follow their own ways. We can only hope that they will take with them some of the values we taught them.

So much of high school is college based, and getting that child into college that no time is spent on real skills. I was able, in junior high, to take a life skills class. I learned how to make a budget, write and balance a check book. i learned the basics of nutrition and how to cook. I also learned the basics of how to fill out a job application. these are skills that should be taught, and we are doing our children a disservice by not teaching it. Many are not learning the skills at home, and while I did learn most of the skills at home, it just reinforced what I was learning at home as something that was valuable and that I needed to learn.

today internet become a priority in our life.... everyone use it, no one doesn't know about internet, so many facilities that used to operate internet, programming for instance, today big , medium , small enterprise use this service... this kind of valuable skill and opportunity to gain money... may be one of skill that is needed for now is programming....