What should kids learn in school?

[Ds J]

Our oldest is going to school next year. This brings up some questions:

What is the purpose of school?

I was 32 when I figured out why they sent me to school. Fact is, school was a frustration because I grasped what they told us in class but I simply did not understand why I needed to know all these things. In my case, it would have helped if someone had explained to me that I need to learn to think and use my brain. If I had understood that school is about exploring different academical possibilities it would have helped very much.

School should be to prepare kids for grownup life - life skills and responsibility as well as the ability to make informed and well thought decisions.

What should kids learn at school?

Mathematical and business ability - one needs to be understand the basics to do proper financial planning and conduct business in a sensible way. I experience daily that folks get abused by opportunistic financial advisers.

Medical knowledge - I experience daily that people don't know how their bodies work. They have to trust doctors and are not able to understand what has happened/is happening to them.

History. Now one can argue about whose view of history should be presented. I am pretty sure that Piet Retief and Dingane had different stories to tell.

What should kids not learn at school?

...

[Skaaphaas]

Before Curriculum 2005 came in, and OBE or whatever came after that, we did have medical stuff at Primary School, called Gesondheidsopvoeding.

I used to hate maths. Hate it hate it hate it. Thought I’d never use it in my life. Lo and behold, the knowledge came into its own a bit later on.

What I did find lacking is knowledge of finances. Budgeting, insurance, tax returns, credit, all of the stuff that is pretty important in almost everyone’s lives, are barely touched on in school. But at least I know how flowers procreate, so I suppose that’s something. Or reproduce. Whatever the term was.

[Finkelstein]

Before Curriculum 2005 came in, and OBE or whatever came after that, we did have medical stuff at Primary School, called Gesondheidsopvoeding.

I used to hate maths. Hate it hate it hate it. Thought I’d never use it in my life. Lo and behold, the knowledge came into its own a bit later on.

What I did find lacking is knowledge of finances. Budgeting, insurance, tax returns, credit, all of the stuff that is pretty important in almost everyone’s lives, are barely touched on in school. But at least I know how flowers procreate, so I suppose that’s something. Or reproduce. Whatever the term was.

Is also my experience.

I had an distiction in Accounting Grade12, but could not do my own tax return up until I turned 28. It did not touch personal budgeting which, despite having a father that sets an excellent example of what longterm benefits are of living in your means, contributed to me to incur further debt before paying of my study loan and set me another two years back then.

Here then my idea of what an ideal curriculum should entitle:

Learn everyone to read and write well before the end of the fourth year of schooling- especially reading with comprehension and learning to formulate your thoughts logical. Not to let anyone move out of this group if they can not do this to a high standard, while learning children that repeating a block does not doom you to failure or meaning you will be marked as stupid and dreams destroyed for ever.

Mathematics laying a good foundation with more time being spend to show how it is being used in everyday live and showing how it would seriously influence your ability to excel in most fields without good general mathematics.

Life skills- Gesondheidspvoedimg but at a 21century level- such as being able to swim, how to cross a round, make a fire safely snd keep it safe, food and personal hygiëne, basic emergency care principals and basic life support (CPR, what to do if someone choke etc) Why using drugs is always a shit choice. The longterm effects of contracting an STD such as HIV for example and the socioeconomic impact of unplanned pregnancies in unstable relationships. Why looking for blesser or becoming a stripper is not awesome. No genderstudy at all. Learning theory of driving and safe road usage with help to get a driverslisence as part of grade 12 outcomes. How to change the wheel or jumpstart a car.

Economics and Social responsibility
Why you need to budget, how tax are calculated/ how to file your return. Why commiting crime is and should be punished. Due process of the Judical snd police system in South Africa. Why socialism is the wrong answer. That you have thr biggest role in where you will end up in life. Learn not to be offended by each and everything and not to use racessism as an excuse or charge. Why following the politics and news important is, before becoming able to vote.

Learn to type and how to use technology as applied.

Keep enable schools to associate with a specific religious group, while not being extension of the church/moscee:Temple and breeding ground for extremists.

Pay teachers well, evaluate what they do regularly. Return pride to being a teacher and shaper of the minds of the nation.

[KK20]

Maths, music, multilingua and meditation.

[SBB]

How to work with your money at a practical level. Whatever you call it. Taxes, savings, budgets, provident funds etc.

[Spliffcat]

Road Safety.
Road Safety. Do not walk on the roads, you will get run over.

[Glockster]

Critical thinking.
Applying logic and reason.
Spelling.
Fucking reading. It might sound ordinary but so many kids don't read books.
Spelling.
Speaking properly. But I guess this should be taught at home.

[Captain Hook]

I'm the head of history at the school I teach at. We're a good private, Catholic, IEB school and most of what has been raised here is taught. We've maintained a 100% pass rate and a 96% university acceptance rate for over 20 years now. Typically over 90% of our kids who are accepted to university finish their degrees.

What I find lacking is financial education and the opportunity to explore modern blue collar work - plumbing, industrial electronics programming, even gunsmithing etc. Philosophy would be great, more and more teenagers I come across are irreligious and have a real lack of meaning and purpose. We're still teaching kids (parents and teachers) that getting a job is the end all and be all. We're still teaching silly crap like be happy and follow your passion, instead of find opportunity and develop your meaning.

My frustration comes in where because of parent and school pressure you end up teaching examine skills by the time they get to matric, which is also the time the finally become interesting to talk and debate with. If my students don't achieve a certain number of A's I get it in the neck from disappointed parents and principals. The result is we end up over emphasizing the final exam and placing the kids under huge pressure, we also usually can't spend time discussing the meat of things like politics, other history, apologetics, philosophy etc

[Roguemeister]

Critical thinking.
Applying logic and reason.
Spelling.
Fucking reading. It might sound ordinary but so many kids don't read books.
Spelling.
Speaking properly. But I guess this should be taught at home.

I think you'll find a pretty good correlation between reading and speaking properly/spelling...

But yes critical thinking and logic is the biggest thing to teach, and general accounting. I never took accounting, so I don't know how beneficial it is, but damn I wish I understood taxes and shit!

I also think in this day and age some sort of IT course, ideally writing code, maybe even substitute this for a 2nd language, I think it's that important these days.

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[Tango Sierra]

Remember doing business economics and accounting during high school where budgeting was covered. Johnny had to budget for hair cuts, flicks etc.