Don't stay in school

Rouge_peg

Has any parents of teenage children came across this video?

My son came to me this afternoon asking me to watch a video called don't stay in school. My initial response before watching it was school is important and I do not agree with the not staying in school.

The video has went viral months ago, and has been viewed by millions of children. My son asked me to give my opinion after watching it. As much as it pains me, I do agree with the video. Kids are being taught to the exam. They are learning many topics that are not needed, nor will the be needed at any stage of your life.

In the song, you hear the lad going on about sedimentry rocks, atoms and so forth. I learned all about these subjects, and they have never been used at any point in my life.

The song raises issues along the lines of children not learning basic first aid, financial advice and not being prepared for life. My son wants to learn first aid, and is going to raise his concerns about not learning these subjects with the head when he goes back to school after half term.

I can't post the youtube link. The song is called don't stay in school by boy in a band.

tomtontom

*Tries not to comment on OP's poor grammar*

If your son wants to learn first aid then why not suggest he joins St John Ambulance? Financial advice and being prepared for life is surely something he should be learning from his parents?

mrbrightside842

School does teach to the exam, but it shows future employers/courses that you're willing/able to apply yourself to be able to learn things and then they can judge whether you'll be able to learn the skills needed for a job. By studying so many subjects a child gets exposed to more opportunities of what they may be interested in, which they would not know unless they tried.

DandelionPatrol

Rouge_peg wrote: »

I can't post the youtube link. The song is called don't stay in school by boy in a band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xe6nLVXEC0

McKneff

golfgolf22 wrote: »

I never went to school an it never did me no arm innit.
Back tomoz, up early for me cleaning shift at the ospital.

Bad spelling there ..... its ORSPITAl....

theoretica

A lot of the facts taught in school are unlikely to be useful in later life - but the point is learning how to learn which can then be applied to other topics at need.

The other point about leaving school is that only very exceptional people would fill their time with something which was more valuable and learning as much but more suited to them individually.

Flyonthewall

There's a second video too where he explains about the song in more detail.

mrbrightside842 wrote: »

School does teach to the exam, but it shows future employers/courses that you're willing/able to apply yourself to be able to learn things and then they can judge whether you'll be able to learn the skills needed for a job. By studying so many subjects a child gets exposed to more opportunities of what they may be interested in, which they would not know unless they tried.

Being able to study so many subjects is good as you're right it does allow them to see what they may be interested in, but none teach real life lessons as pointed out in the song which is important. So the system needs to cover both.

Also, subjects are quite set throughout most of school. You do quite a few different subjects, but it's only a very small amount compared to how many subjects there could be/are later on. You don't really get more options until GCSE or even college.

Flyonthewall

Link to the video explaining about the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJIu7pE0lBA

ViolaLass

The kid in that video does himself no favours. He complains that, among other things, he wasn't taught how to vote.

How hard is it to find that out?

Apparently he also doesn't know 'how to pay tax'. For most people, this is not an issue as your employer sorts it out for you.

He was also not 'taught what laws there are'. Did he expect school to cover all of them?! And when he complains that they didn't go over current events - read a newspaper, many of them are free online!

Kids need to learn a certain amount of stuff, they need to learn how to learn and how to handle and manipulate information, and they also need to experience subjects - they won't know whether they're interested in geology, creative writing or trigonometry unless they get to experience these things.

The argument of "I've never used it" is daft - how can we know at the beginning of a child's life all the info that they will need and therefore which info they will not? And why should their experiences be limited solely to the 'useful'?

Hermia

Rouge_peg wrote: »

In the song, you hear the lad going on about sedimentry rocks, atoms and so forth. I learned all about these subjects, and they have never been used at any point in my life.

I do have concerns about school just being obsessed with exam results etc, but I also don't think everything you learn needs to be of practical use either. You might not have used your knowledge of atoms, but I think not knowing basic science such as this would be a bad thing. Everyone should have a decent level of general knowledge. Some of it might seem useless, but can help you in odd ways. For example, I expect a lot of the people who fall for quack medicine scams have a poor knowledge of biology and chemistry and therefore can't see why that treatment cannot work.

BTW, do they not have first aid courses in school now? My school did them in '90s and it seemed to be standard back then. It's a shame if they have stopped that.

peachyprice

ViolaLass wrote: »

they need to learn how to learn and how to handle and manipulate information, and they also need to experience subjects - they won't know whether they're interested in geology, creative writing or trigonometry unless they get to experience these things.

The point of schooling in a nutshell. Seems to have gone straight over this child's head. It's a shame his parents couldn't convey this to him.