Don't stay in school

Flyonthewall

ViolaLass wrote: »

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'?

There are many stupid people out there who are completely clueless and not smart enough to teach themselves or even think to teach themselves and some that won't have an adult who can teach them things either. So while you may think it all simple or obvious not everyone does.

As for the useful part, I believe he covers that in his second video.

peachyprice wrote: »

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.

He did very well at school and uni and never says what they teach in school is bad or anything, just that other things are important to teach that aren't currently taught, but everyone will come across in their adult life.

ViolaLass

Flyonthewall wrote: »

There are many stupid people out there who are completely clueless and not smart enough to teach themselves or even think to teach themselves and some that won't have an adult who can teach them things either. So while you may think it all simple or obvious not everyone does.

As for the useful part, I believe he covers that in his second video.



He did very well at school and uni and never says what they teach in school is bad or anything, just that other things are important to teach that aren't currently taught, but everyone will come across in their adult life.

He mentions plenty of things with disdain e.g. dissecting a frog. I genuinely WISH I'd got to do that at school, it would have been fascinating.

And as to your first point, I was never taught how to register to vote or change electricity suppliers but Google has been my friend many times. If you can't think to look things up somewhere when it occurs to you that you need/want to know them, then I despair.

It's not that I think these things are obvious or necessarily straightforward but doing something about ones ignorance is, especially with the internet and sites like this one, for example.

And, again, part of the point of school is to put you in a position to be able to help yourself. We cannot teach each child a highly specialised curriculum covering only what they will 'need' to know. Far better to teach them some stuff, some critical thinking and how to find out more if interested.

Flyonthewall

ViolaLass wrote: »

He mentions plenty of things with disdain e.g. dissecting a frog. I genuinely WISH I'd got to do that at school, it would have been fascinating.

And as to your first point, I was never taught how to register to vote or change electricity suppliers but Google has been my friend many times. If you can't think to look things up somewhere when it occurs to you that you need/want to know them, then I despair.

It's not that I think these things are obvious or necessarily straightforward but doing something about ones ignorance is, especially with the internet and sites like this one, for example.

And, again, part of the point of school is to put you in a position to be able to help yourself. We cannot teach each child a highly specialised curriculum covering only what they will 'need' to know. Far better to teach them some stuff, some critical thinking and how to find out more if interested.

Yeah, that's how you think. You, and many others, think to use the Internet. You possibly have people to ask who do know the answer to life questions.

However, for some, school is the one and only way they will find out such information. Not everyone has access to the internet, not everyone can use the internet and not everyone has someone to ask. Not everyone will think to do such things, which is sad but true so regardless of how much people despair it has to be taken into consideration.

However, they will have to deal with the things in their adult life and they may well struggle and make mistakes when a few lessons in school could have made things so much easier for them.

Even those that do think to look up the answer, they aren't likely to do so until the point they really need to know. At that point it may cause confusion, panic, they may find mixed information, they may struggle to learn it all before they need to actually do it etc. If they'd already been taught it in school they wouldn't have that issue.

It's impossible to teach kids the answer to everything in life and cover all subjects, but there could be more of a balance between the things currently taught and important life things.

Hermia

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Yeah, that's how you think. You, and many others, think to use the Internet. You possibly have people to ask who do know the answer to life questions.

However, for some, school is the one and only way they will find out such information. Not everyone has access to the internet, not everyone can use the internet and not everyone has someone to ask. Not everyone will think to do such things, which is sad but true so regardless of how much people despair it has to be taken into consideration.

However, they will have to deal with the things in their adult life and they may well struggle and make mistakes when a few lessons in school could have made things so much easier for them.

Even those that do think to look up the answer, they aren't likely to do so until the point they really need to know. At that point it may cause confusion, panic, they may find mixed information, they may struggle to learn it all before they need to actually do it etc. If they'd already been taught it in school they wouldn't have that issue.

It's impossible to teach kids the answer to everything in life and cover all subjects, but there could be more of a balance between the things currently taught and important life things.

A lot of these skills are being taught in schools and often extra lessons are offered via the school library. IME a lot of kids don't pay attention though. I think it is partly because they see themselves as the internet generation and can't see what a bunch of 'oldies' can teach them. I have friends who are school librarians who offer extra classes on things such as internet searching and how to evaluate information. The problem is getting kids to go to them. I think a big part of the problem is that teens aren't always interested in things that they currently don't have a use for. They can't see the point of it. I expect that if schools did offer classes on how to vote or how to understand tax the kids would zone out so much there is no way they would retain the information.

PenguinOfDeath

Rouge_peg wrote: »

The song raises issues along the lines of children not learning basic first aid, financial advice and not being prepared for life.

Schools can only teach so much, surely parents are supposed to teach this sort of stuff?

Flyonthewall

Hermia wrote: »

A lot of these skills are being taught in schools and often extra lessons are offered via the school library. IME a lot of kids don't pay attention though. I think it is partly because they see themselves as the internet generation and can't see what a bunch of 'oldies' can teach them. I have friends who are school librarians who offer extra classes on things such as internet searching and how to evaluate information. The problem is getting kids to go to them. I think a big part of the problem is that teens aren't always interested in things that they currently don't have a use for. They can't see the point of it. I expect that if schools did offer classes on how to vote or how to understand tax the kids would zone out so much there is no way they would retain the information.

While still at school most kids won't want to do any extra classes they don't have to and most won't care about half of what they're taught when forced. However, even if they zone out it doesn't mean that some of the information is going in, even if they don't realise it. Besides, they're probably zoning out on most/all other classes too, but we still force them to go to school so we may as well try and teach them things like taxes and voting.

Even writing things down can help you remember things. Sometimes it's surprising how much you have heard and remember about things when you weren't interested/only half listening.

I mean, I bet there are numerous stupid things you remember from school that are completely useless, you've no need to remember them, didn't care at the time etc. Yet for some reason they've stuck with you.

I'd guess there are many kids out there who can tell you women fought for the vote, probably give dates and names etc. But what use is that really if they haven't actually got a clue how to vote, how voting all works, what options they have for voting and all that. Why teach how people all came to be allowed to vote and how important it was if we're not going to tell them how to vote? If you're only going to teach half does it not make more sense to teach them the half that affects them in life (i.e. how to vote)?

There will also be some kids who do pay attention and who will learn and some of them may not find out the information otherwise.

While they may be considered the Internet generation and many do pretty much live online, there are also those who don't have it. Probably more than we realise. Doesn't mean they don't want to learn, it just means they don't have the same options as others.

Flyonthewall

PenguinOfDeath wrote: »

Schools can only teach so much, surely parents are supposed to teach this sort of stuff?

Not everyone has a parent or adult in their life to teach them that though. Plus, not all parents know the answers themselves.

nearlyrich

Education is wasted on the young...

Rouge_peg

tomtontom wrote: »

*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?

Because of my disability, I rely heavily on voice to text software when using a computer. Using the correct grammar to the finest detail can become very time consuming. You weren't to know I have a disabilty when you commented on my poor grammar.

Saint John's ambulance can teach him. As a parent, having basic first aid as part of the curriculum would be more beneficial for the children, instead of learning about Victorian England. Do you agree?

MJ12

There are things that we know we know, things that we know we don't know, and there are things that we don't know we don't know.

If you don't go to school, then we know there are many things that we know you don't know you don't know.