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

Marianne72

As it’s too hot to do anything practical, I’ve been thinking [arrgh, look out Open mouth]. If education was based on, ‘how to live a fulfilling life’, instead of passing obscure exams, perhaps many of society’s problems might self-resolve over time. It seems to me that many problems are simply cries for help from unhappy people (not only kids) who don’t know how to get from a) to b).

I had, ‘unfortunate’ [ergo, hopeless] parents who taught me nothing, except not to ask questions [ergo, questions resulted in cold silence, black looks or argument!]. By the time I left school, I had no idea:

  • how to run a house or bank account, let alone go about finding either

  • what ‘career’ meant and how you knew which job you might enjoy and be good at

  • the meaning of love/relationship – how you found a suitable life partner; tediously expressed by peers as, ‘the one’ - as if some kind of Messiah!

  • how to be successful, i.e. exemplified by the glittering gods / goddesses in the culture pages.

  • In the absence of faith, how to be moral and avoid immorality, also to know the difference

Yes, I had a string of O levels and 2 A levels, but what use was the history of world religions, formula for quadratic equations, how to use a Bunsen burner or the gory battles of Attila the Hun? I would rather have learned the difference between capital and interest; how to cook a meal from scratch; how to budget and make a shopping list; how to avoid vexatious or tedious people; and most of all, how to be happy.

What sort of education would you have liked? How would you like to be taught? How would you organise a curriculum based on practical life skills?

Parents

  • 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.

  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    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! 

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  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    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! 

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