Posted on 04/13/2021 3:06:01 PM PDT by Olog-hai
We all remember the endless hours spent in our school classrooms learning about declensions, trigonometry or the French future perfect tense.
But it turns out that adults really wish they had been taught practical life skills such as how to change a tire, write a CV or plaster over holes and cracks.
Money worries headed up the top 20 list of what parents wish they had learned at school — namely how to save cash, advice on budgeting and how to invest.
The survey of 1,000 parents revealed that how to cook everyday meals and how to start a business were also among skills they regretted not developing. […]
The research, commissioned by online learning service 8billionideas, found nine in ten parents thought self-care skills were more important in adult life than algebra. …
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“School is largely tax funded babysitting. Any parent who insists on working from home, but wants their children to do in-person learning is doing so because they miss said babysitting.”
My wife, who just turned 81, came to the same conclusion that you did after talking to some of the parents you described above. Even with the pandemic and staying at home with the kids, the parents didn’t want to teach at home nor their kids at home.
She tried to suggest ways to do the home schooling from pooling w/other parents, relatives and retired people. They were not interested in doing that. They wanted baby sitters.
Our oldest son’s, 2 life long and best friends, now living in two different counties and cities have worked out job/sharing the teacher roles with other parents and relatives and even older siblings over a decade plus.
All their “grads” have shredded the SAT’s and basically got into any college they wanted and done well. Those, who have finished colleges with real degrees have excellent jobs.
One of my wife’s adult nieces did something similar after some good teachers retired, left or passed on in their area. Then, the public schools became liberal BS schools.
Both of that niece’s adult sons now have engineering degrees and jobs using those degrees. Their engineer dad put in 40 hours of work in 4 days, and taught the math skills at home and on each Friday and the weekends. Other relatives added their kids and helped with the math and other courses.
“Academic subjects” are now mostly “How to Hate Your Country.” and similar foul ideas.
BOL: “I’m often asked, “Why don’t schools teach kids about how to pay taxes?” They get their first job and are asked to fill out a W-4. “What’s this?”
We waited until they got their first pay check and saw the taxes and SS and ?? taken out and what was finally their share.
It was a math lesson, reality 101 and their first look at what socialists do to Americans daily or at least on pay day.
They have never forgotten that lesson.
Well, yeah. Duhh.
Yes.
But they are also right that they should have been taught life skills at school.
It used to be considered part of a balanced curriculum to teach home economics, shop and consumer math.
This was done because lots of people have lousy parents.
If they have not mastered literacy and math by the time they are in fourth grade, long before you get into life skills in high school, they are done in any case and the school has failed.
So they should at least teach them how to make a sandwich.
I learned metal shop. My skills from that have me earning near lawyer fees. last year kung flu nearly wiped me out but with all the people who could do what I do retired. I have tried to hire back my former employees but they have refused.
People have since sadly found out that such single-faceted skills and mindsets are not just useless in the real world, especially when an industry gets targeted by the government to send overseas, but debilitating. People would be far better off with reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic, basic computer skills, and then add a whole bunch of stuff their grandparents knew; firearms, mechanics, outdoorsmanship, music, philosophy, cooking, etc.
Problem is many people never need those higher math skills. But they were never given the chance in high school for other skills like carpentry, electrical wiring, or car repair. Nope, only Algebra, Geometry, French, Spanish.
The dumbing down of the population. Life skills used for centuries...able to build your own home, grow your own food, smoke your own meat, and later fix your own vehicle..all skills which made people more self-sufficient.
Instead they are now taught to stare at a computer screen for 8 hours, click a mouse, and let a computer do most of the work.
“Girls went to Home Ec, boys went to some type of woodworking class.”
Oh my! How sexist! /s
City slickers should instead learn cannibalism, particularly how to prepare Mexican. There's not enough nature around Democrat areas to sustain them more than a few minutes.
Some of the best freedom fighters in history developed their talents hunting deer. That's because deer are much smarter than communists.
Problem is many people never need those higher math skills. But they were never given the chance in high school for other skills like carpentry, electrical wiring, or car repair. Nope, only Algebra, Geometry, French, Spanish.
———-
Agreed, but I can pay a decent carpenter or electrician here in the Philippines the going rate of 500 Pesos a day (a little more than $10).
Skilled blue-collar work is more and more the realm of the Mexican Cheap Labor Express and skilled white-collar work is basically only for Indians now.
So where does that leave a vast number of Americans who chose the services industry (the one industry absolutely devastated by the government lockdowns)
LOL!! So glad I grew up in the 50's when things were normal.
Sure can’t get a decent electrician, carpenter, or plumber for $10 here in the States! Those skills provide many a person with a good yearly income here.
But again the most needed skills to be more self-sufficient in the U.S. are not taught anymore. A population staring at computer and phone screens all day will only deteriorate in time.
Sure can’t get a decent electrician, carpenter, or plumber for $10 here in the States! Those skills provide many a person with a good yearly income here.
But again the most needed skills to be more self-sufficient in the U.S. are not taught anymore. A population staring at computer and phone screens all day will only deteriorate in time.
———
I wish I wasn’t so uncoordinated as I could be self-sufficient. I tried...yeah. White-collar jobs will be soon all reserved for Indians. Unfortunately.
I wish I would have picked up some skill when I was younger (only thing i can do is prototyping and fixing low-voltage DC electronics)
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
and another
“At least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come from policemen, that 'news' is not something that happens to other people. He might learn how his ancestors lived and that he himself is no different--in the crunch his life depends on his agility, alertness, and personal resourcefulness.” ― Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. Heinlein > Quotes
So Heinlein maintained that all soldiers are capable of being officers, and all of the above are capable of being spies too?
Excuse me, but in a broader sense, I believe, yes. Considering there is such a need as a non-commissioned officer. Why do you even pose the question?
If I could be an NCO, I bet you could have too. Also when I was about twenty years old, I was a company spy in a Union organizing meeting! I am most proud of that too.
NCO is not an officer. And it has nothing to do with my question anyhow, not to mention that not all members of a military force are even NCOs.
And I’m not enamored of many of Heinlein’s social leanings anyway, even though I’m in agreement of his statement with respect to armed societies.
The broadly accepted definition of Non Commissioned Officer is:
A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not earned a commission.Why do you make the claim that an NCO is not an officer when the title itself states that it is an officer. You make no sense. You don't get to make words mean only what you think they mean. Also, your sense of humor is much different than mine.
Cheers, big ears!
The dividing line is still enlisted versus commissioned, isn’t it though? (US warrant officers FWICS are commissioned.) I don’t mean to move the goalposts, but to just clarify, because I don’t see where the NCO substitutes for the commissioned ranks in formulating missions and suchlike unless in great need.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.