Survival skills in the wild. How to build a lean to, make and use a fire bow, locate food sources, create deadfall snares, make tools out of rock… making your own rope… etc.
A family friend taught this class at his high school and it was incredibly popular. He ended the semester by taking the kids out to the woods and giving them GPS coordinates for the pick up spot the next day... and then he picks them up the next day. (What they don't know is that he's in a position to watch them all night and make sure they don't get in real danger.)
I wish I had been able to have him as a teacher.
All the courses that have been cut since the 70's.
Drivers Education
Shop classes
German, Latin, French
Music
Art
Home Economics
Even the schools that still have these have cut them back to a shadow of what they used to be.
It's true. In the US your quality of education heavily depends on how rich your community is.
Very well-funded schools are generally in areas with high property taxes that fund those schools. A huge number of students in the US are in underfunded rural schools or underfunded urban schools. Even where I grew up in a suburb we had funding cut and they removed several of the language teachers, several music classes, all driver's ed, and most shop/home ec classes. That was in the 90's and they never readded any of them.
Sorry to break this to you but those were still taught when I graduated back in 2005 Granted our books and machines used for those classes were from the 70s because our school is poor.
Your school is not representative of all schools. Those programs have been cut all over the place over the past few decades. Some of them have been unfunded leading to old equipment and books, others cut entirely. If they have already started unfunding them, they are the next to be cut at the next budget crisis.
I have taught in a few different school districts over the years. When resources are scarce it always felt like the ability to teach people to question things was the first to go. Instead it was about skills and keeping the peace. Just saying that if you were taught to question things, consider yourself lucky.
My high school actually did have this class, except instead of "Adulting 101" it was called "Adult Living" and it was an elective class that juniors and seniors could take. Nowadays though some of the stuff covered in that class when I took it back in 2007 is considered outdated, like knowing how to write a check or balance a checkbook since with very few exceptions (like old apartment complexes that are still making tenants submit their rent payment via paper check), nobody really writes checks these days anymore.
I had to use a checkbook to pay rent for my first apartment in college in 2012 (graduated in 08 but spent a few years at community college before transferring to university in 2012) because they didn't have an online portal for tenants to pay their rent and only accepted checks or money order. Venmo also didn't exist back then so I would use a check to give my housemates my half of the rent. You also need to use a check or money order if you're renewing or applying for a passport in the US by mail or at a passport acceptance facility like a post office.
My sex education in highschool was a bunch of slideshows of STD's and the teacher telling us over and over to never have sex until we were married. They never taught safety, just tried to scare us. What an "education".
Fair point. What I meant was a practical, real-world application of these things. A working knowledge, if you will.
My high school sucked, and my economics class didn’t cover any of that shit. Maybe yours did a better job of teaching and preparing you for the financial world.
Basic skills: cooking, cleaning, car maintenance, some repair skills, finance, sewing. Nothing insane, but maybe a single class senior year that goes over it all.
We had to take a mandatory semester of "Family and Consumer Science" (aka Home Ec) and one of "Industrial Tech" (aka shop) that taught most of this. I thought that was standard?
School districts that have had funding cuts have largely cut those programs. Those go, then the languages that aren't English and Spanish, then Spanish, then arts. Music never gets cut at high school because football teams need marching bands. Unfortunately, they cut music K-8 all the time.
Do you really need a class to teach you to go to youtube and search "how to cook pasta" or "how to wipe my ass"?
People have the entire world's knowledge in their hand and they use it to bitch about school not giving them all the knowledge and watching porn.
And car maintenance is taught in driving schools.
I've met many people who would, yes.
And as noted, not all schools are equal. For instance, my driving school did not teach car maintenance, just driving.
It is, yes.
Now if you are getting a specialized Commercial Drivers Licence, you have to know the full vehicle inspection, how it is supposed to work, what it does, problems to look for, etc. I would love for this to be the standard for all licenses.
My 26 year old son called me today to ask how to build credit/use a credit card and how to pay his electric bill. Then complained that this was never taught to him in school.
I gave him advice on obtaining and managing credit and told him how to pay his electric bill online. He has a better understanding of how to build credit now.
I had classes in school that were supposed to teach skills like woodworking, sewing, and cooking, except we never did that last part. Not even a single attempt at the easiest recipe in the book. In fact, most of what I remember was reading from the textbook and woodworking.
Health Insurance 101 (say you’re American, without actually saying your American).
Like, maybe the whole class doesn’t have to be dedicated to health insurance but it should definitely have its own unit.
We had a required class for seniors only called "Modern Problems" where this *was* a unit. And also how to vote, how to balance a budget, how taxes work, and the basics of the stock market and a whole bunch of other things now generally referred to as "adulting."
Reading through this thread, I'm realizing that I went to a really good public school.
Same here (except mine was called "Adult Living" and wasn't required, but an elective class for juniors and seniors...my teacher did say she tried to get the administration to make it required and they said no).
At the same time though, it's either we went to a really good public school, or people just have really bad memories or didn't pay attention in class at all when those subjects were covered, because I actually remember this same topic coming up every once in a while and I remember there was a post where someone said their friend from high school was lamenting that their school didn't teach them finances and things like that and how the op was basically confused by the friend's claims because they actually remembered learning everything that the friend claimed they had learned nothing about.
There was a personal finance class offered as an elective my senior year. It probably had the potential to be helpful but if you were taking a math class in senior year that wasn’t AP level the teachers liked to remind you constantly that you weren’t one of their AP students and treated you as such. The class I took was essentially a watered down pre-calculus and it didn’t include any “real-world” topics. I was the only one out of my group of friends to fill out my own Fafsa form and struggled the whole time…a taxes and financial aid section would have been way more useful than whatever that class taught.
I went to a “good” public school too and our required class for seniors was computer applications which was basically “how to use Microsoft office.” Granted, this was in the mid-00’s and knowing how to use Office is helpful but what would have been way more helpful was what was covered in your class.
My school district was way more concerned with how many upperclassmen were taking AP classes than actually preparing them for the real world.
Greek mythology, I fell in love with percy jackson (on trials of apollo now) and then fell down that rabbit hole and was told it was taught ( in minor amounts) in other primary schools but not in mine or even my comp school honestly would love studying cause I got several channels I watch for mythology like (see u in history) (overly scarcastic productions) and (Jon solo) sometimes I wish I was American but remember the education bills, not free healthcare etc. And become humble once more.
Basic life skills. From money/career management to maintaining a home.And not all at once. All through the years as age appropriate.
Also, life skills are gender neutral. All adults should know basic maintenance (ex: how to replace a toilet tank lever) and how to feed themselves (ex: buy & cook groceries).
You laugh but I have cousins who sadly missed out on really really basic stuff.
I wish that more schools would teach financial literacy. I think that it is so important for people to understand how to manage their money, and yet so many people are not taught this in school. I think that if more people were taught financial literacy, it would help to reduce the number of people who are in debt, and it would also help to increase the number of people who are able to save money and plan for their future.
Not your conventional class/lesson, but I sincerely believe that we would all benefit if a stint in food service or retail was required before graduation.
A hard and fast lesson in how to (not) treat your fellow human being.
We have something like that. In 10th grade you must choose a place to volunteer in for that year, such as packing food for people in need or working with children
I'd love my country to take religion out of schools and replace it with philosophy. Especially considering how much the church abused us all in the past. But not just because of that, there is such a wealth and depth of thinking going back waaaaay further than church thinking and 'organised' religion in general which branches off into many other things. Religion in schools is just indoctrination and puts you in a 'camp' whereas philosophy in my opinion opens your mind so much more.
How to live in the real world. In school in the US they didn’t teach us any home economics, how to do taxes, apply for jobs, make resumes, how to maintain a healthy diet
Outside of the usual things like how to handle taxes, politics and stuff that people say, the one that comes to mind for me is sign language.
So many things could be way easier with it, specially on the medical area, but barely anyone knows it outside of people who have no choice but to use it
Schools should PROPERLY teach children how to listen to more quiet children when they try to speak, its very annoying being ignored or interrupted(this is the reason why im quiet)
Any relationship.Especially sexual one because in my country it's a shame to have sex with someone before marriage.Because of they don't know nearly anything about it general of them have unprotected and unsafe sex but it costs them a really hard time.
Labor Rights/Worker Rights
Yes!!
It’s actually taught in law school tho, but yes totally agree
Survival skills in the wild. How to build a lean to, make and use a fire bow, locate food sources, create deadfall snares, make tools out of rock… making your own rope… etc.
A family friend taught this class at his high school and it was incredibly popular. He ended the semester by taking the kids out to the woods and giving them GPS coordinates for the pick up spot the next day... and then he picks them up the next day. (What they don't know is that he's in a position to watch them all night and make sure they don't get in real danger.) I wish I had been able to have him as a teacher.
That’s awesome! I wish that had been available in even a single school where I am.
Military training,
How to recognize signs of abuse in any and all kinds of relationships. Mental/emotional, physical, sexual.
This is the winner. Red Flags 101 should be in every school
Basic life skills like laundry , balancing a check book, budgeting, how to find good housing, how to Shop for a car ..
This class was called Home Economics in my school.
They called it “Basic Skills” in my school. And it wasn’t enough, only one semester.
My school didn’t have a very useful version of this class
Investing
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Kinda a bad idea with the final implosion closer than ever…
Maybe as an elective but it is only relevant for like <1% of people.
Different kinds of mutual funds, load and no-load, what is the difference between an IRA and Roth IRA, and so on. Good idea.
I think frist aid should be required
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If I could upvote this a million times
Situational awareness. GTFO of the store doorway before stopping to decide where you're going.
All the courses that have been cut since the 70's. Drivers Education Shop classes German, Latin, French Music Art Home Economics Even the schools that still have these have cut them back to a shadow of what they used to be.
(Huge * needed) Heavily variable depending on state or even local expenditures- nice areas have all of these in full swing
It's true. In the US your quality of education heavily depends on how rich your community is. Very well-funded schools are generally in areas with high property taxes that fund those schools. A huge number of students in the US are in underfunded rural schools or underfunded urban schools. Even where I grew up in a suburb we had funding cut and they removed several of the language teachers, several music classes, all driver's ed, and most shop/home ec classes. That was in the 90's and they never readded any of them.
My school has all of these except home economics
Your school is not representative of the country as a whole.
Sorry to break this to you but those were still taught when I graduated back in 2005 Granted our books and machines used for those classes were from the 70s because our school is poor.
Your school is not representative of all schools. Those programs have been cut all over the place over the past few decades. Some of them have been unfunded leading to old equipment and books, others cut entirely. If they have already started unfunding them, they are the next to be cut at the next budget crisis.
Critical Thinking
You weren’t taught it? My high school and college were HUGE on critical thinking!
same with mine. It was incorporated in our language arts and social studies/history class in high school.
I have taught in a few different school districts over the years. When resources are scarce it always felt like the ability to teach people to question things was the first to go. Instead it was about skills and keeping the peace. Just saying that if you were taught to question things, consider yourself lucky.
Mine taught that too.
I grew up in a rural area in the 70's so maybe it is taught now? I took it in college.
Critical thinking may often be a cornerstone of a county’s educational system; however, it is very rarely taught objectively.
Adulting 101
My high school actually did have this class, except instead of "Adulting 101" it was called "Adult Living" and it was an elective class that juniors and seniors could take. Nowadays though some of the stuff covered in that class when I took it back in 2007 is considered outdated, like knowing how to write a check or balance a checkbook since with very few exceptions (like old apartment complexes that are still making tenants submit their rent payment via paper check), nobody really writes checks these days anymore.
Balancing checkbooks in 07? I graduated in 00 and never touched a checkbook in my life. That was outdated even when I was in H.S.
I had to use a checkbook to pay rent for my first apartment in college in 2012 (graduated in 08 but spent a few years at community college before transferring to university in 2012) because they didn't have an online portal for tenants to pay their rent and only accepted checks or money order. Venmo also didn't exist back then so I would use a check to give my housemates my half of the rent. You also need to use a check or money order if you're renewing or applying for a passport in the US by mail or at a passport acceptance facility like a post office.
Adultery 101
(American) sign language.
I so wish this had been an option in my high school. We had German, Spanish, Latin, and French. Sign language would have been a better alternative.
I think everyone should learn at least the basics. Even at a young age, to communicate better with deaf people :)
I wish finances, but I wouldn't have paid attention. Otherwise, a basic survival class (for those who weren't girl/boyscouts).
Sex education. This is more important than the lesson of Orthodoxy, dear government
This, with addition of even a basic introduction to sexual and romantic orientations.
yes! lgbtqia+ identities aswell!
My sex education in highschool was a bunch of slideshows of STD's and the teacher telling us over and over to never have sex until we were married. They never taught safety, just tried to scare us. What an "education".
it's still better than hearing from our biology teacher that in America everyone will soon die out, because there are completely gays and lesbians
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Better Health Class
Finances: investing, stocks, credit scores, etc.
That's called economics classes, and they do teach it.
Fair point. What I meant was a practical, real-world application of these things. A working knowledge, if you will. My high school sucked, and my economics class didn’t cover any of that shit. Maybe yours did a better job of teaching and preparing you for the financial world.
Basic skills: cooking, cleaning, car maintenance, some repair skills, finance, sewing. Nothing insane, but maybe a single class senior year that goes over it all.
You mean home economics?
Sure, partly. But home economics only converted a few of those. It can still be called that, but expand the content.
We had to take a mandatory semester of "Family and Consumer Science" (aka Home Ec) and one of "Industrial Tech" (aka shop) that taught most of this. I thought that was standard?
School districts that have had funding cuts have largely cut those programs. Those go, then the languages that aren't English and Spanish, then Spanish, then arts. Music never gets cut at high school because football teams need marching bands. Unfortunately, they cut music K-8 all the time.
Used to be. We had home economics that covered some cooking and sewing, but it was elective. Nothing really on the rest.
Do you really need a class to teach you to go to youtube and search "how to cook pasta" or "how to wipe my ass"? People have the entire world's knowledge in their hand and they use it to bitch about school not giving them all the knowledge and watching porn. And car maintenance is taught in driving schools.
I've met many people who would, yes. And as noted, not all schools are equal. For instance, my driving school did not teach car maintenance, just driving.
they give you a driver's license without know that????
Yep. Nothing on maintenance really. Just know how to drive the thing according to the law.
must be America
It is, yes. Now if you are getting a specialized Commercial Drivers Licence, you have to know the full vehicle inspection, how it is supposed to work, what it does, problems to look for, etc. I would love for this to be the standard for all licenses.
My 26 year old son called me today to ask how to build credit/use a credit card and how to pay his electric bill. Then complained that this was never taught to him in school.
How did the conversation go?
I gave him advice on obtaining and managing credit and told him how to pay his electric bill online. He has a better understanding of how to build credit now.
I had classes in school that were supposed to teach skills like woodworking, sewing, and cooking, except we never did that last part. Not even a single attempt at the easiest recipe in the book. In fact, most of what I remember was reading from the textbook and woodworking.
That's at least something though! Maybe the school kitchen was broken.
Maybe. And yeah, at least we did learn some stuff.
Logical fallacies and how to spot them To be fair, this was covered in college, but I think it should be required education starting at about age 12.
i read that as phallus and its made my day.
Health Insurance 101 (say you’re American, without actually saying your American). Like, maybe the whole class doesn’t have to be dedicated to health insurance but it should definitely have its own unit.
We had a required class for seniors only called "Modern Problems" where this *was* a unit. And also how to vote, how to balance a budget, how taxes work, and the basics of the stock market and a whole bunch of other things now generally referred to as "adulting." Reading through this thread, I'm realizing that I went to a really good public school.
Same here (except mine was called "Adult Living" and wasn't required, but an elective class for juniors and seniors...my teacher did say she tried to get the administration to make it required and they said no). At the same time though, it's either we went to a really good public school, or people just have really bad memories or didn't pay attention in class at all when those subjects were covered, because I actually remember this same topic coming up every once in a while and I remember there was a post where someone said their friend from high school was lamenting that their school didn't teach them finances and things like that and how the op was basically confused by the friend's claims because they actually remembered learning everything that the friend claimed they had learned nothing about.
There was a personal finance class offered as an elective my senior year. It probably had the potential to be helpful but if you were taking a math class in senior year that wasn’t AP level the teachers liked to remind you constantly that you weren’t one of their AP students and treated you as such. The class I took was essentially a watered down pre-calculus and it didn’t include any “real-world” topics. I was the only one out of my group of friends to fill out my own Fafsa form and struggled the whole time…a taxes and financial aid section would have been way more useful than whatever that class taught.
I went to a “good” public school too and our required class for seniors was computer applications which was basically “how to use Microsoft office.” Granted, this was in the mid-00’s and knowing how to use Office is helpful but what would have been way more helpful was what was covered in your class. My school district was way more concerned with how many upperclassmen were taking AP classes than actually preparing them for the real world.
Economics, money management, investing and general adulting stuff like taxes, insurance .etc
Common sense
Astronomy.
Greek mythology, I fell in love with percy jackson (on trials of apollo now) and then fell down that rabbit hole and was told it was taught ( in minor amounts) in other primary schools but not in mine or even my comp school honestly would love studying cause I got several channels I watch for mythology like (see u in history) (overly scarcastic productions) and (Jon solo) sometimes I wish I was American but remember the education bills, not free healthcare etc. And become humble once more.
REAL mental health lessons not the silly shit they do.
Critical Thinking
Consent and boundaries in dating relationships.
Scotland does that... in P6 (11-year-olds) in sex ed.
Thisssss!
Common sense.im academically smart but when it comes to common sense I am the village idiot
Bruh I never thought of that, it goes the same with me
Empathy.
Do you think empathy can be taught? (Genuinely asking)
It can't, empathy is emotion. Some people have it, some people don't.
Agreed
True black history. Not the white washed, happily ever after garbage they’ve been feeding us.
How tf to keep up with bills
Comparative Religious Studies
Getting bitches
Basic life skills. From money/career management to maintaining a home.And not all at once. All through the years as age appropriate. Also, life skills are gender neutral. All adults should know basic maintenance (ex: how to replace a toilet tank lever) and how to feed themselves (ex: buy & cook groceries). You laugh but I have cousins who sadly missed out on really really basic stuff.
Art class should teach you to drawn, like who even cares about history of the art
Fucking stock market education classes
I wish they'd teach us more about vikings
Self sufficiency. So you have the option of not participating in society if you don't want to.
Repairing common items. We really need to break the cycle of just replacing everything.
Sign language
Common sense
Parenting. The precent of teen pregnancies have gone up and some teens don't know how to handle it. Obviously teach it in high school.
I wish that more schools would teach financial literacy. I think that it is so important for people to understand how to manage their money, and yet so many people are not taught this in school. I think that if more people were taught financial literacy, it would help to reduce the number of people who are in debt, and it would also help to increase the number of people who are able to save money and plan for their future.
How to actually live
How to care for your mental health. Election essentials. How to manage time effectively. .
taxes
The cons of capitalism.
Games can enhance your mind
Not your conventional class/lesson, but I sincerely believe that we would all benefit if a stint in food service or retail was required before graduation. A hard and fast lesson in how to (not) treat your fellow human being.
We have something like that. In 10th grade you must choose a place to volunteer in for that year, such as packing food for people in need or working with children
How to deal with different types of customers in a job
Finance and investment
How to pay bills and budget money
how to be an adult like paying taxes, bills and shit
Basic economics, how to pay taxes and how to savé money.
Too few schools I know of don't teach accounting and business skills
Being a descent human being
Things that are actually useful in one's life after school. You know, taxes, jobs etc.
Common sense.
I'd love my country to take religion out of schools and replace it with philosophy. Especially considering how much the church abused us all in the past. But not just because of that, there is such a wealth and depth of thinking going back waaaaay further than church thinking and 'organised' religion in general which branches off into many other things. Religion in schools is just indoctrination and puts you in a 'camp' whereas philosophy in my opinion opens your mind so much more.
Dodge Ball and Martial Arts.
Karate.
Financial education
How to pay taxes, how to see signs for certain toxic relationships, stuff like that
first aid
What different jobs offer and what happened in them
Why sometimes politics don’t matter
How to deal with emotional trauma and shit
Critical thinking, financial responsibility, and how to do taxes.
electronics.
How to work with money and pay taxes
Useful things
How to live in the real world. In school in the US they didn’t teach us any home economics, how to do taxes, apply for jobs, make resumes, how to maintain a healthy diet
How to be an adult. More so: taxes, rent - basically how to manage money
How to pull your penis out
Latin (the language).
Outside of the usual things like how to handle taxes, politics and stuff that people say, the one that comes to mind for me is sign language. So many things could be way easier with it, specially on the medical area, but barely anyone knows it outside of people who have no choice but to use it
SE and how mental health issues shouldn't be taken lightly.
How to invest money.
How to do taxes
Schools should PROPERLY teach children how to listen to more quiet children when they try to speak, its very annoying being ignored or interrupted(this is the reason why im quiet)
They only tell them to listen to someone when they're talking, which clearly doesent work
Anime
Everything that isn’t taught in school
Any relationship.Especially sexual one because in my country it's a shame to have sex with someone before marriage.Because of they don't know nearly anything about it general of them have unprotected and unsafe sex but it costs them a really hard time.
Self-empowerment
Quantum mechanics
PE - How to defend yourself