Don't stay in school

ViolaLass

Rouge_peg wrote: »

The mandatory subjects I have no quarrel with, they are important. What is not important are the subjects that will have no benefit to your child in future life.

Genuine question, what would you drop?

YORKSHIRELASS

I agree with Fbaby, particularly as I see this from a different perspective. My eldest (17 years old) has not been to school since he was 10 due to serious health problems. A good school teaches children so many things that we don't even think about, for example social skills, how to relate to adults, how to organise your time, how to work with people we dont really like, how to deal with failure and disappointment as well as covering topics such as racism, sexism, bullying etc.

Of course these issues should be reinforced at home as well but a lot of growing up is done in school.

Person_one

FBaby wrote: »

learning about Ancient Egypt might help develop their imagination which might then help them develop their creativity, which will make them able to do jobs that the 'doers' are not capable of.

Plus, you know, its interesting!

Knowledge and learning for its own sake has value to individuals and to society, as well as the practical and life benefits it brings to people who have a love of learning new things.

pinkshoes

I have used all of my GCSE knowledge, and it is that knowledge that gives you the basis of mastering other skills, and shows to future employers that you are capable of adapting yourself to learn anything.

I did self defence and first aid at school, as we requested it and found someone to help us organise it. We also did golf in PE as we found a teacher willing to teach us.

The curriculum is there as a stepping stone, but it is then up to individuals to ask for what they want.

The thing I hate most as a teacher is whiny kids - those who moan about things being boring or irrelevant, but don't do anything about it!

selement

Things you expect to be irrelevant... You never know you might need it one day! I ended up in a healthcare career using more of my gcse sciences than I ever expected to! Certainly weren't my favourite or best subjects at the time.

Alikay

School isn't intended to teach a child all the life skills they need. Growing up is a process where lessons are also learned from parents, peers, the wider community and a growing knowledge and understanding of self. Most of us continue that learning path throughout our lives - some knowledge useful, a lot of it less so.

Whilst I may not have used my Latin verbs, Newton's laws or made all the 7 (yes, 7!!) types of pastry I learned to cook in school, I feel learning them showed me just how much there is in the world to find out about, learn and experience.

Oh, and I have used Pi and Pythagoras Theorem several times since leaving school!

missbiggles1

Rouge_peg wrote: »

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?

No, totally disagree. You're his parent, you teach him basic first aid or guide him towards youth groups or St John's Ambulance who can offer this knowledge.

Schools already spend too much time filling in for parents and teaching skills that should be learned in the home environment. The more of this they do, the more parents will leave to the schools, as we've seen with sex education.

Alikay

Rouge_peg wrote: »

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?

Learning about the Victorians, particularly all the advances in technology and engineering, the British Empire and structure of society during that era IS important IMO.

I learned first aid at a youth group, and my children did it in Scouts and Air Cadets but I do retraining every 2 years as it's required in my job.

Flyonthewall

FBaby wrote: »

But school is not just about learning practical matters. I am guessing that you are a 'doer' type of person but many are 'thinkers' and learning about Ancient Egypt might help develop their imagination which might then help them develop their creativity, which will make them able to do jobs that the 'doers' are not capable of.

I'm more of a thinker, but Ancient Egypt didn't really help develop my imagination...unless being bored zoning and thinking of other more interesting things counts :rotfl:

I remember learning about Tutankhamun. I think we did quite a bit on him, but I saw a TV ad the other day about how they'd learnt something or other about him I thought was already known and I'd been taught about so now I'm confused about what we were taught when there was, it seems, some big unknown. Can't remember what the TV ad said now. That one advert probably made me think more about it than the school work at the time did though lol.

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

A good school teaches children so many things that we don't even think about, for example social skills, how to relate to adults, how to organise your time, how to work with people we dont really like, how to deal with failure and disappointment as well as covering topics such as racism, sexism, bullying etc.

True, but they're not taught as actual lessons, it's learnt without realising just by being with others in that situation and having to go to a certain place at a certain time and do what teachers say. I think most of that's learnt even at really bad schools.

Alikay wrote: »

School isn't intended to teach a child all the life skills they need. Growing up is a process where lessons are also learned from parents, peers, the wider community and a growing knowledge and understanding of self. Most of us continue that learning path throughout our lives - some knowledge useful, a lot of it less so.

No, but that doesn't mean they can't teach a few more of the really important things. Not everyone has others to learn from.

Oh, and I have used Pi and Pythagoras Theorem several times since leaving school!

Very few people do though. However, Maths is important. No reason why they can't teach that and teach finance along side it. Throughout school you do so many maths problems revolving around buying items and things like that (e.g. *story about going to the shop to buy milk* what is 10% off a pint of milk costing £1). They make up all these long questions for a simple maths questions (so above, 10% of £1). They could change this or expand on it to make it more about finance.

Flyonthewall

Alikay wrote: »

Learning about the Victorians, particularly all the advances in technology and engineering, the British Empire and structure of society during that era IS important IMO.

I learned first aid at a youth group, and my children did it in Scouts and Air Cadets but I do retraining every 2 years as it's required in my job.

I learnt about the Victorians, but not about advances in technology or engineering as far as I remember.

I never learnt first aid at school either.

I think Brownies and possibly Guides do that (like Scouts do), sure there's a badge for first aid, but I went to Brownies for years and I never did that. So even with groups like that it all depends on what they happen to do in the time that you're there.