Catch 22: What Should Be Taught in School

Like with anything else, society evolves. Sometimes, it’s for the best but other times, one has to wonder. Seeing the too often low quality service in restaurants and retail stores, or the frustrations displayed by our younger neighbours, and this constant need to be “connected” to the internet instead of with actual people, I’m not convinced that all is positive.

We can’t stop “progress”, they say. Perhaps we can’t. But is there something that we can change, say in our education system, that would help improve on the way our children turn out and become better prepared for adulthood?

Catch 22 Topics

I have given this a lot of thoughts and after a while, I have come up with a list of 22 subjects, or topics, that I feel should be taught in school. Let’s call them: Catch 22.

Admittedly, most of this should be taught at home by the parents but with the divorce rate being what it is, it’s hard to find consistency. Further, with the economic reality of today’s society, both parents often have to work full time, making it harder to find time to teach our kids the basics that were taught long ago. Also, seeing where this world is going, it seems like the parents either don’t have it in them or are way too “out there” to even know about some basic elements that used to be “common sense”. Basic skills like respect of authority, being on time, or commitment all seem to be a lost art.

– Basic Income Tax preparation and write-offs

– Budgeting and investing money

– Speaking (public) and eloquence

– Making a resumé

– Nutrition and metabolism

– Basic first aid

– Community and volunteering

– Mental health and life hygiene

– Emotions and stress management (meditation?)

– Responsibility and autonomy

– Ethics, honesty and moral

– Recognition and respect

– Goodness, empathy and compassion

– Basic survival skills

– Health benefits of disconnecting from electronics

– Time management

– Effective communication skills

– Basic negotiation skills

– Basic home and vehicle repairs

– How to look after our environment, our planet

– Basic workout routine

– Social responsibilities

Today’s society wants everything done for them. If they don’t see immediate results, they lose interest. The same goes if they don’t see that something being taught won’t be useful to them in the future. Perhaps a more “hands on” approach is needed, some sort of reform of our education system?

Better career counselling

I was a grade “A” student but when I spoke to a counsellor in high school, he simply asked me what I wanted to do for a living. That was his way of helping me determine what line of study I should take at University. I didn’t know. What’s out there? What’s available? I’m 16-17 years old. I’m far from knowing the different career paths out there.

He decided that since my grades were great, I should study in Natural Sciences. He described it as a turning platform and with it, I could then decide later what I wanted to do. The issue? I didn’t like sciences. Those were the topics that I struggled the most with. So he directed me to College to study only subjects that I didn’t like. Guess what? I ended up dropping out.

Today, counsellors should educate themselves with career trends and get to know the students better. An elaborate aptitude test (not one to be graded) could easily be developed, in order to see what teenagers like doing, what their skills are. Then, with their knowledge of the job market for the next 5-10 years, they could help better guide students in the right direction so that they can study in a field that they like, and find jobs where they will be happy doing, with passion.

Conclusion

If you teach young students basic life skills early on, if you have a counselling system that is adequate and up to date, you will find fewer drop outs. You may also find more people pursuing careers where they will be happier and therefore, be better at it.

Perhaps I’m a dreamer, thinking that way. Or maybe, just maybe, there is something to it. What we do know is that the current system is outdated and it hasn’t been working for a long time. I mean, I’ve graduated some 40 years ago or so!

Admittedly, what I’m suggesting is not perfect. There are other things that could be addressed, like the cost of education and students getting themselves in huge debt. But we have to start somewhere, right?