What schools are failing to teach our kids

[Art Shirk]

Now that my first kid is getting older and more inquisitive, I'm starting to think about subjects that US schools aren't teaching and probably should. I'm not about to put some formal syllabus together but I'd like to have a running list of shit I wish I was exposed to earlier that I know most schools aren't offering. What would you add to this list?

Second language from a young age
Personal Finance
Philosophy
Emotional Intelligence/Awareness
The art of Internet trolling

[::: :::]

For all kids 8th grade down, 1 hour of exercise 5 days a week -- team sports from 3rd grade up

[hutash]

Music and art

[Timberridge]

How to mount their own fucking bindings.

[hutash]

Sex and misogyny, the Donald Trumps of the world need to learn to objectify women at an early age.

[hutash]

How to mount their own fucking bindings.

Winner, but add waxing.

[Art Shirk]

dealing with hard knocks

Amen. Mine is going to the food bank with me this Winter on the weekends.

[BmillsSkier]

Now that my first kid is getting older and more inquisitive, I'm starting to think about subjects that US schools aren't teaching and probably should. I'm not about to put some formal syllabus together but I'd like to have a running list of shit I wish I was exposed to earlier that I know most schools aren't offering. What would you add to this list?

Second language from a young age
Personal Finance
Philosophy
Emotional Intelligence/Awareness

Good list, I'm thankful that I was given exposure to all of these through schooling at a young age. I hope to provide the same for my child when school rolls around.

I'm sure you know, it's so much easier for kids to learn a second language when they're young. Probably the only reason I can still speak very broken French but my toddler belts out words in Spanish, Japanese, and French. (Thank you Sesame Street and Leapfrog).

Personal Finance was a course we took first year of middle school. Balance a checkbook, how credit cards work, bank accounts... This should be continual learning every year through graduation IMO.

Philosophy helps develop critical thinking, something an entire generation of trigger-warning snowflakes will be helplessly without. Oh, and it makes for lawyers. Lots and lots of lawyers.

The art of Internet trolling

Try the TGR approved online activism tutorial?

[Timberridge]

Winner, but add waxing.

Under 16--paraffin waxes only...no HF

[Sirshredalot]

Grammar, spelling, and handwriting have all fallen by the wayside, imho. I'm not saying that we need to spend hundreds of hours drilling kids in penmanship, but you should be able to write legibly and in complete sentences with appropriate syntax by the time you're an adolescent. Forming complete, coherent sentences is an under-appreciated life skill.

[Timberridge]

^^^Phew...I'll bet you double checked that post for grammar and spelling before hitting "post reply?"

[snapt]

Where our food comes from (In the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle).

[Sirshredalot]

^^^Phew...I'll bet you double checked that post for grammar and spelling before hitting "post reply?"

I'm guilty of posting from my phone. I don't think it's great for my writing habits. I'm lucky because I had parochial school when I was very young and I went on to be an editor for my high school newspaper. Editing bad writing is useful practice!

[Art Shirk]

Grammar, spelling, and handwriting have all fallen by the wayside, imho. I'm not saying that we need to spend hundreds of hours drilling kids in penmanship, but you should be able to write legibly and in complete sentences with appropriate syntax by the time you're an adolescent. Forming complete, coherent sentences is an under-appreciated life skill.

I think I heard that they don't teach cursive or d'nealian anymore? That seems crazy to me but maybe I'm missing something.

I'm sure you know, it's so much easier for kids to learn a second language when they're young. Probably the only reason I can still speak very broken French but my toddler belts out words in Spanish, Japanese, and French. (Thank you Sesame Street and Leapfrog).

Don't get me started. My wife speaks fluent Polish and I tell her everyday to simply speak to the kids in Polish. The rest of their world will speak English to them. Instead, its been bits and pieces and now that the first one is old enough, she goes to Polish classes on Saturdays. What a backwards way to go about it. Kids don't need to be taught language to learn it when the parents can speak it.

[Art Shirk]

Where our food comes from (In the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle).

This is a good one and can be segued into Diet. But it will have to proceed a class called "Do as I say, not as I do."

[::: :::]

I think I heard that they don't teach cursive or d'nealian anymore?

i had to google d'nealian

[::: :::]

Where our food comes from (In the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle).

i wish i had more in this regard growing up in suburbia -- my wife, who was a 4H'er, regularly shakes her head at my lack of vegetable/fruit understanding

[The AD]

Second language from a young age
Personal Finance
Philosophy
Emotional Intelligence/Awareness
The art of Internet trolling

Philosophy? I'll agree with the other stuff, but I've never really seen the value in philosophy.

[Cruiser]

Not totally relevant to this post, but didja know they still teach cursive to schoolchildren? What a giant fucking waste of time. Amirite?

edit: Didn't see CL above saying they didn't teach cursive to kids wherever he's at. My kids have all had to learn it here in CO.

[abraham]

This is a good one and can be segued into Diet. But it will have to proceed a class called "Do as I say, not as I do."

This kids, is the wild Cheez-it. It travels in herds, usually in the snack aisle

[Art Shirk]

This kids, is the wild Cheez-it. It travels in herds, usually in the snack aisle

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...light=cheez+it

[The AD]

i had to google d'nealian

That's a new one to me, too.

I'm a little on the fence about whether cursive should be taught anymore. Obviously it still has value, but the value is diminishing year-by-year. How often does anyone really need to write, pen on paper, anymore? And it's not like you can't just print it if you do. I think cursive and the ability to drive a manual transmission are dying arts.

Tangentially related, I heard yesterday that only one in five millennials has ever tried a Big Mac!

[PNWbrit]

Amen. Mine is going to the food bank with me this Winter on the weekends.

So you can carry more home?

Good idea.

[Cruiser]

Calligraphy is a dying art. Cursive is a waste of time.

[Buster Highmen]

All that shits up to me; the school is just the usual drive in boilerplate.
I'm not emphasizing the practical to the exclusive of the academic. For example, I do think there's value in calligraphy, art, music and social skills.