how would you re-organise the school curriculum, to teach life skills?

How do they cope with pupils who struggle with digital literacy? Anything techinical really flummox's me, I didn't help when I somehow managed to take out the colleges entire ability to print anything late on a friday afternoon. I was with the tutor who was stood over me explaining what to do, I hit print and bang, that was it all fcuked, I had staff from all sorts of depts cross at me and thinking I'd done it on purpose, I hadn't, but I wasn't allowed to use the computers again.

I remember those courses too, funnily enough I was thinking about them yesterday, I went to one for help with maths. I was given some work sheets to gauge my general level and then given more work sheets to do, I never got any real help, nobody showed me how to do anything, it was like being back at school, given a work book and left to get on with it and the assumption that I'd work out how to do it myself. I didn't and the teacher was quite happy to settle on me have the mathmatical ability of a 10 year old.

When I was at school computers were huge great things that used punch cards, our school didn't have one, but the girls in the top maths group were allowed to go to the boys school opposite ours and use theres, but it wasn't really approved of.

A very good point. It's often assumed kids are taught these things by parents - but that's simply wrong. And many suffer in silence, being too embarrassed or ashamed to ask - I know I was.

I think you've covered a lot of really good ones (including things I hadn't even considered like finding suitable partners - that's an amazing idea and really important with the rise of social media). 

When I was in sixth form, we had a mandated class called General Studies, and while it's often dismissed by higher academic institutions, it was honestly the most radical teaching I received in all my school years. We learned, generally of course, about British politics, and how the current political system came to be with the advent of the Labour party and the de-facto two party system we find ourselves now in and this, taught as objectively as possible, was massive in transforming how I looked at the world around me.

Being able to see the foundational patterns in how we're governed has really helped me in the long run, and it's something I think everyone should be introduced to.

ICT is already big in schools. This is becoming as core as maths and English. It's life skills that are often forgotten. I guess that's why others haven't suggested it. You're right though. It's essential they learn and how to keep themselves safe using it too.

TheCatWoman said:

Like it or not digital skills are vital these days and as I know to well theres very little help for people who don't know how to use

There isn’t enough help around, but it is out there.

I think computer literacy is considered today’s equivalent of literacy and numeracy, or as my Granny used to say, reading, writing and [a]rithmetic.

In the 1980s onwards, the local ‘tech’ near me used to run adult literacy classes. That stopped, and it was left to community groups and churches to run classes helping people to read, write and do basic arithmetic.

Marianne72 said:

My parents were dysfunctional, so unlike my peers I had no life-learning before entering Primary school

It’s a crucial time and I empathise.

I missed real life learning too before beginning P.1 at age four. Emotional and social neglect, and psychological abuse more than anything physical, although I was hit.

That is one subject they do teach. We didn't have a computer in school and I was one of those children who never had one at home either. My computer knowledge was learnt from working in an office where we had computers. At first it was just inputting on a mainframe designed by someone where I worked. Then the internet came in and I was allowed access to look things up I needed. I still have to ask when there are things I don't understand, but at least when I had left home and we got a computer I knew something about using it. 

Expecto_Patronum said:

RE also includes ethics and philosophy which does talk about morals and immortals and not just in a religious meaning

The ability to form an opinion, backed up by credible reasoning, on the big questions facing society, is relevant in a world where people get so much misinformation from social media and politicians.

The ‘A’ level RE Philosophy and Ethics paper could include topics that may be too sensitive to discuss here.

The point is, students were required to argue for or against certain things that in real life were subject to complex moral and legal arguments, and which dominated the news. Examination marks reflected the depth and sophistication of the argument backing a view. 

One of things nobodies mentioned are digital skills, I'm guessing everyones assuming that kids come knowing how to use a computer and phones and stuff. I wouldn't be able to show anyone stuff like that, I barely know how to do it for myself, I don't know how to keep myself safe online, its one of the reasons I do so little online.

I suspect that if I were a young person now, with the same parents, I still wouldn't know, as I doubt I'd have been allowed to use it, let alone have any of my own, maybe the most basic phone, but only with pre-approved phone numbers on and it would be regularly checked to make sure I was talking to anyone "unauthorised".

Like it or not digital skills are vital these days and as I know to well theres very little help for people who don't know how to use it, jus the same sort of shaming that I had for not knowing basic maths and having terrible spelling 

You sound as though you were quite academic Marianne? I wasn't, so I was ignored, school was a warehouse for adolescent girls. No one even asked why I had trouble with things like the alphabet, times tables, basic numeracy and if I was found out I was told off and punished. yet it was expected that girls like me would have children young, mothers educate thier children form early on in life, how can you be expected to do that when you're barely educated yourself?

Referring to your life experience lesson reminds me of my experience at a Grammar school. In the first year to try to be more progressive boys and girls did needlework, cooking, metalwork and woodwork. In cooking they included 'life skills' like polishing brass or silver and washing a hairbrush or comb. Then in next two years only girls did needlework and cooking, but boys could choose the O level in the cooking subject, which included theory. That was one of the subjects I did as I enjoyed cooking.  

I think your school experience was similar to mine and that of many others, read a chapter and write it in your own words. All I remember about science lessons was a girl pointing a test tube of burning potasium permangante in my face and me going blind for a couple of hours, I wasn't taken to hospital or my parents called, just left to sit outside until my vision cleared. And human biology, the human reproductive system for half a term every term.

My family never had holidays, we went on day trips, because my parents would put the dog in kennels or bring her with us. We didn;t have a car, we lived in a bungalow rather than a house, my parents didn't go to the pub, there were so mny differences between me and others at school and everyone was picked up and commented about unfavourably. I could ride a bike so my friends stopped calling for me to go places with them, I couldn't swim, I was kept short of money or not allowed any at all, I had hardly any clothes and one pair of shoes at a time. My Mum went back to work when I was 10 and I was pretty much running all the domestic side of the house, laundry, shopping, cooking by the time I was 13.

I hope schools have improved since our day

Homebird said:

There were Secondary Modern schools

My brother went to one and was mercilessly bullied, so I was sent to a CE school. Middle class kids have a different way of bullying though - looking incredulous when you revealed things you didn't know about, I mean the basics of living. I was not exactly shunned but never part of the class. 

My parents were dysfunctional, so unlike my peers I had no life-learning before entering Primary school. Up to the time I left school, it was impossible for me to bridge this huge knowledge gap. I'd spent years in trauma, ridiculed and bullied for not knowing even basics about relationships, money and so on. I learned all this myself in later life.  

Expecto_Patronum said:

I would however like to see schools teaching practical life skills like ironing and making a b

Indeed, the skills of home-making, shopping and suchlike ought to begin at Primary level. I didn't know, for example, that people earned money by working, that relatives usually met with each other or even how to play! My parents rarely talked (they argued or went silent) - there was a tense atmosphere most of the time, so I found life happiness by walking in nature and going to the library.

Expecto_Patronum said:

I would really like to see an interest based part of the curriculum.

Yes, that would be great. It's very hard to know what you might like, when you don't even know what exists! 

There are actually qualifications called ASDAN which covers a lot of your list.

RE also includes ethics and philosophy which does talk about morals and immortals and not just in a religious meaning.

I would however like to see schools teaching practical life skills like ironing and making a bed. I know some will say this should be taught at home but increasingly, it is not and it's so important for independent living. 

I would also like to see some of the less useful elements of the curriculum removed. I don't see a purpose for things like circle theorem or covalent and ionic bonding for the majority of people in the real world.

I would really like to see an interest based part of the curriculum. It would need some structure still but I think giving kids the opportunity to learn about something they are interested in is so important. And it can help them build skills that are helpful in their education and potentially later life like research skills.

TheCatWoman said:

did you not learn anything from it thats helped you in later life?

Not the things I mentioned ie practical daily living. I learned research and critical thinking later in life through my own efforts, using books, courses and also learning how to write books. Our history lessons consisted in the teacher, the deputy head with admin duties, walking in and asking us to 'read the next chapter' in the course book. There was no critique, teaching us how history was made, for example, just dates, battles, kings and queens. I learned history by volunteering on archaeological digs [age 10] then reading widely. The science teacher was interested in one pupil who was a brilliant budding chemist and disappointed in the rest of the class. We carried out experiments by rote but were not taught scientific methodology. The English teachers were ok, but left before O levels and, as you say, I ditched Shakespeare until decades later, after studying Coriolanus - his dullest play. The religious edu teacher was a bit better, but it was mostly factual history and basic faith beliefs, no analyses, psychology or insights into why people believe what they do or ethics. Most of my time was taken in trying to fit in with indifferent, sometimes snobbish, middle class students, who did not understand my love for football, why our family never had holidays, that father was sometimes on the dole and my life harder than theirs. 

I think UBI is inevitable, the issue will be getting the tech companies, who's products are doing away with humans to pay for it. It's not acceptable that they make so much money and individuals make so much money and pay so little tax, have so little concern for everybody else and hide behind international tax havens to avoid their responsibilites.

I went to a secondary modern and I wouldn't wish that failed excuse for an education on anyone, can someone please explain to me why bringing a pair of tights to school to hand wash was a "life lesson"? We had baby dolls to wash and change too, dolls always freaked me out, still do, I'd run screaming from one in a way I wouldn't do with a real baby, one of the things I noticed was how gendered these lessons were, we got to do laundry and play with big dolls and the boys, in the school opposite us got to do carpentry and metalwork, would young people have the choice now or would we still be silo'd by gender?

I think changing how we teach, how we think of schooling and certainly how schools are run should be changed. Uniforms is one of my bugbears, schools say they want to foster individuality, but the first thing they do is make everyone look the same. I don't buy the argument that nobody knows who's rich and who's poor, kids heads don't do up at the back, it's all given away with a hundred small details, what bag you have, how clean you are, what you eat, if you eat, your accent, what car you arrive at school in, what jobs your parents do, if any and what sort of house and street you live in.

I think one of the things thats really confusing is the insistance on fostering individualism, whilst at the same time wanting everyone to be a team player and basically think the same things. Do teachers really like getting 30 different versions of thier own lecture note back when pupils hand work in? Do they not welcome some originality, when properly researched and backed up by evidence? I think some teachers actually do want 30 different versions of thier own lecture notes because then they don't have to think, this was something I encountered whilst doing an access course, our psychology lecturer's went mental when is adults actually brought our own experiences into our work, despite being asked to do so. Universtiy lecturers loved it?

I wonder if we infantalise learning to much? Do we take the joy out of it? How many Shakespeare lovers, still can;t watch the play they had to study for an Englsh exam. I think we should allow people to choose more of what they are interested in, rather than torture everybody with things we hate and can't do. Obviously this should happen along side the basics, but maybe if people were allowed independent study they would find the basics such as maths more interesting.

Marianne, whilst I'm sure you might never have used your religion O level directly, did you not learn anything from it thats helped you in later life? Research and some critical thinking maybe?

Also, take a look at B's thread from a couple of months ago: community.autism.org.uk/.../alternative-schooling

Ah, thank you.

Fibonacci Squid said:

'Philosophy and Belief'

Yes, that would be better. I went to a CE school - but the head was a bully and we learned no ethics, only the nuts and bolts.

Fibonacci Squid said:

And I don't know about you, but even if I had been told about the field I ended up loving, I probably wouldn't have loved it at the time.

I would have liked even a bit of direction. I told them I wanted to be a writer and was directed to typing and bookkeeping. In the end I had a vast range of 'jobs' and sort of drifted across various fields, never really taking to any. Careers and job advice is vital - it opens options you would not have considered. For example, I would have loved to work in or run a garden centre instead of ending up for years as a buyer and also in the NHS. 

Fibonacci Squid said:

Financial literacy

Fibonacci Squid said:

Safety online

Fibonacci Squid said:

First aid and managing health conditions, including some basic mental health first aid

Yes, definitely all of those are vital. I too worked in mental health and that's where I became aware of the dire state of basic education at the time. I hope it's better now than the 1960's to70's when I was struggling through strange subjects!