If I had to pick only one thing (as only one thing comes to my mind at the moment), I believe Comprehensive Sex Ed + Consent needs to come back.
@AsadFarooqui As part of a general course on sex Ed and consent —call it “societal social intersection” course—there should be segments on sexual harassment and bullying. Another content that should be taught to high school students are general life’s skills, which would include how to manage one’s personal finances and live independently. And as part of this the content should include a primer on how to effectively use the internet to be able to conduct research, obtain critical information and find out answers to questions on one’s own.
Agreed. I’d pick better sex ed. I wish schools taught us practical skills too that are needed in the real world, like doing taxes, managing income, diversifying income, communicating with others, networking with other people, and more.
I also have noticed how schools preach about mental health but never do anything about it. Mental health is still an uncomfortable topic, but discussing the mental health of someone is never something that should be uncomfortable, and should instead be seen as something that’s normal and alright.
Also, schools should teach students about the dangers of social media use. I think this would help a lot of the kids at my school.
I don’t know if this is not the case for the schools you guys go to, but we still do sex education/FLE every year and talk a lot about consent. It is talked about for almost two weeks straight in health. I just wanted to let you guys know. However, I agree with all of you that this is a very important topic that needs to be discussed, especially in today;s world. My heart goes out to all the innocent people who have suffered from this issue.
I also agree with @trackmbe3 on bullying. I think bullying is still a big problem that should be addressed.
Have a good day!
The difference between it’s and its.
1) Not to shoot each other
2). You can live without your phone for a few hours.
True home economics. How to budget, how to balance a check book, the benefits of saving for retirement starting as soon as you get your first job. How to invest in the stock market safely.
My kids learned how to sew a fuzzy pillow and bake cookies in home ec. Not even how to cook actual food!
Writing and English grammar.
Not a class but…It was troubling to watch a group of kids sitting at one table in the cafeteria IN SILENCE texting. Just sitting and looking at the phone, and then dial. Speak, interact, please.
@RightCoaster I don’t think you need to teach a kid not to shoot another kid. If someone is considering shooting someone else, there’s clearly a mental issue that’s going on. There are school counselors for a reason.
We DEFINITELY need more sexual education, because the kids at my school think that having sex is just for fun. We had some girl get pregnant as a junior, and now she’s vaping in the bathroom. It’s almost a badge of honor for the jocks at my school to have sex with as many girls as possible.
Anyways, we have finance classes, but I really wish that we had home economics. I literally don’t know how to cook almost anything, and because my parents are both VPs at major insurance companies, they work late. That is not me saying that they don’t care, because they love me a LOT, but I would like to learn more about stuff around the house. It’s kind of surprising to me that we don’t have home economics, when we have classes like “Stagecraft.”
Also, more grammatical things. The amount of students at my school who don’t know what a comma splice means is crazy. Honestly, I think that I have been blessed with my mother (English + business). She corrects me on all my gramatical errors, although I’m not perfect, I think I have pretty decent grammar for someone who is 15. Not everyone has that opportunity, and I feel like my school focuses a lot more on literature and analytic reading, which is great, but I think grammar is a bit more important than Othello.
Civics (yes I’m old school) and Basic Money Management.
- The joy of intellectual curiosity and exploration for their own sake. Provide opportunities for students to delve deeply into a topic that interests them. Allow for different pathways of exploration and expression/ presentation based on different learning styles, while still holding to certain common standards/goals and desired learning outcomes.
- How to listen to and read what others say/write in a respectful manner, evaluate their arguments and the factual evidence for them critically and with an eye to possible bias, and then form, articulate, and support— with powerful evidence— an educated opinion, in a manner respectful of those who may disagree.
- Democracy. How is our government intended to function? Why are there checks and balances and a Bill of Rights? What are potential challenges and pitfalls in our representative democracy? What about in other systems of government? Are there American ideals? Where have we lived up to these, and where have we fallen short? What can you do to be an active citizen and make a difference within the community and the world?
@gallentjill “True home economics. How to budget, how to balance a check book, the benefits of saving for retirement starting as soon as you get your first job. How to invest in the stock market safely.
My kids learned how to sew a fuzzy pillow and bake cookies in home ec. Not even how to cook actual food!”
D20 school doesn’t end until mid June, with AP exams done, her AP Euro class teaches “Life Skills” (how to balance a check book, how to jump start a car, what is a FICO score, basics of investing, etc.).
In addition, my step dad had a saying that my little sister, who had a 4.0 gpa in HS, didn’t really learn anything as most of the classes were rote learning/memorization. I think there was/is some truth to his statement.
@TheGreyKing Oh my gosh, yes! The kids at my school are sooo ignorant. They throw around words like fascist and bigot around too much. Education on democracy and government as a whole is needed. I truly think that by doing that, maybe more people would vote in the future. This is kind of off-topic, but why is there so much summer homework? I have to read five books and write essays over the “summer break.” It’s not really a break if I have to do homework all summer.
I’m going for penmanship.
I received a thank you note for a graduation gift (college) and the card was almost illegible.
a basic course on economics, personal finance and budgeting.
there are too many kids who are financially ignorant, and have no idea how to make a budget and stick to it.
I think by the time HS rolls around, it is too late for most of these topics, especially bullying, sex ed and social media. They need to be addressed much earlier.
Life Skills…balancing a checkbook (or debit statement), how taxes work, time management, organization, budgeting, simple cooking, “professional” manners/social expectations.
Current Events.
Kids who can tell time (analog time.) There are high school students who can’t look at a clock, to tell time, but depend on their phones.
If they had a class called AP Home Economics, every kid on this website would take it.
Cursive. I know kids who can’t read our country’s Founding Documents because they haven’t been taught to read or write cursive.