I'm sure most of you have heard at least once before someone saying they think there's something wrong with school, they're not learning anything useful, or they have no idea what they're gong to o when they finish (even though that's what schools meant to prepare you for). This isn't just a problem in one country. I can testify to it being true in Australia, and I've seen plenty of evidence from other countries.
One of the first things I found that points it out clearly was a song titled Don't Stay In School. I saw it in my Facebook feed from a friend that had shared it. Although it came from America, it touched on pretty much the same problems I was seeing and could remember from my own schooling.
Then he mentions tax. Well a couple of things that you might use were touched on in General Mathematics, but none of the higher classes. Um...what? Well, apparently that's something your meant to learn at home. The last time I had time to learn something at home was in primary school. Primary school! I didn't even know what tax was for most of that. This is not related to the education system, but they really need t go bad to what they used to do: when you need to start paying tax you get a letter (or these days an email might be more appropriate) explaining exactly what to do and how to do it. There's so much more to money too, banking, financial advice, the stock market, etc. Can anybody mention a teacher who cared to give you any information on this at all!
Yup, for me voting was something I had to work out for myself. Our teacher explained how they can't tach us abut politics because they might teach us about one party only, they're favourite party, and we can't decide for ourselves. That doesn't mean it should be eliminated for the curriculum! Teach us about all the parties. That would probably mean a whole lot less donkey voting (pretending to vote, but putting a blank form in the box). Even in countries where voting mandatory, if you don't know what you're voting on, or how to find out more, what do you expect!
Here's a big one 'I wasn't taught how to look after my health'. Do you know how many people die per year from the common cold?!? In the US it's 36 000! And a recent strain is causing 5% of people who get it to die! Maybe a little common health knowledge could drop that number by half or more! What about first aid. Or how about recognising disease, or mental problems. Go ahead and ask whoever closest right now if they know someone with a physical or mental problem. What would have happened if everybody around them could have notice the signs sooner? How many people might have survived?
'Never spent a lesson on current events.' What was going on when I was in school. Well, I guess there were some floods, some droughts, and other natural disasters. People dying somewhere, maybe. Don't ask me. We didn't even look at things happening in our backyard. Two years in a row there was major flooding in my area. One year I couldn't get home, and the other I couldn't get into school. It was several more years before I found out those were caused by cyclones up north causing another low pressure system down here.
'I was not taught what laws there are' either! If I was, it was several years after they started applying to me. Hello! Sorry, but I think we should know them before they apply to us, not after. Yes, the legislation gives us the law in very long, convoluted terms. How about a class on simple law once a week. People have confessed to me, and I've confessed others, and if you now the right laws and think about your probably guilty too. Most of us have broken the law out of ignorance, it's not our fault. Often we are young, and just don't know any better. We need to be taught the laws of our country, and we need to be taught now!
Now, if you go into the right TAFE and uni courses you might touch briefly on human rights. That's too late. Would I have lived with an emotionally abusive parent for 18 years, thinking it was fine, thing it was normal. No! It's against the law, and our human rights. These should be taught in kindergarten. You can find plenty of copies in simple words. Save us from these injustices!
How many of you have thought of having kids? And how many of you know exactly how to tell your pregnant, what to do when you are pregnant, or anything about the moment a babies born? How much does it cost to raise a child? How many people have gone to your school who wold one day have kids. The numbers speak for themselves. This should almost be mandatory. We spent 10 minutes of a lesson on parenting methods in one class! One Class! In year 12! A Category B subject no less!
If you look around there's so much out there: Schools just there to sell us the whole university gig, and we're still teaching kids like we did during the industrial revolution.
If you want to learn to write a resume take English Studies.
I learnt more in one year of Community and Family Studies, than all of every other subject I took in high school put together, and I took two years of that!
Even our head of maths said only Primary School is really useful. 'Everything else you can learn on the job'!
Please share, and link any other videos you've seen like this. The time is now! We need to save ourselves, or friends, and everyone else!
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