Why don't school teach children how to be sensible, responsible and law-abiding grown-ups?

Question

I always think that at school, children should be taught things like how to manage their time and their money, how to bring up the next generation, how to handle and manage emotions and relationship with other people, how to look after themselves, their health and wellbeing and how to be a responsible and respectable person in the society. This is because even if children are not going to be scientists, doctors or bankers one day, they will still have to grow up and they are likely to end up becoming someone's employee, husband/wife and parent. Wouldn't it be nice if they are taught this vital knowledge when they are children so they won't grow up to be irresponsible parents and citizens? Or will I be accused of advocating nanny state education that tells people how to behave?

I agree that it is first the parents' responsibility but it is obvious that many parents are not interested in teaching their children how to be respectful or sensible. That's why I think maybe children would benefit from being taught at school.

Answer 1

I agree with you that it is certainly a good idea, but where I'm from (South AFrica) we follow the old English schooling system whereby we have a zero tolerance to bad behaviour, yet still have freedom of expression and room to enjoy life and grow to our fullest potential.
When I came to teach in the uk five years ago, i entered a class of special needs pupils (because here they dont have seperate schools the way we do back home, because we feel they then get the individual attention that could best benefit each one of them) and as they entered, one gave a loud tsunami deafening fart which set off a cluster of giggles while one boy straightened up and said "and with that, we welcome you to england miss". That set the tone for the entire 4 years i taught here...children are born of children, so here are lots of immature and ill-prepared parents. the state pays anyone who has a child an allowance, so (according to recent local papers) more and more teenagers are coming home to the idea of leaving home and forsaking school for an early family life for which they havent the foggiest of an inkling of preparation, having come from the same sort of backgrounds themselves.
The sad thing is, most of the poor kids i taught, the worst of the poor, were the honest folk who did not rely heavily on benefits, the rest (who seem to make up the majority) all live out this culture of complete wastefulness, breaking textbooks and other such valuable stationary, switching computers and overhead projectors on and off and on and off for the sheer hell of it. Then saying i'm picking on them if i single out one or two whom i know to be the culprits, then followed the abusive letters from parents threatening to go to the governing bodies if we pick on their little darlings, and from the spelling alone, one can deduce that sadly, their parents aint got no education neither!
it would be so nice, if a bit idealistic, to try and teach kids about values and manners and tell them why its "bad" to swear, because a lot of the time they'll vehemently disagree that swearing is not bad at all etc.

Answer 2

It's too late I'm afraid.

This is because the schools had any authority removed back in the 60's and 70's. Children were to be allowed to do what they wanted to.Those children are now today's parents, and still think only they have rights - they still do what they want to do, not what is the right thing to do. Police are not allowed to do anything about out of control children, parents are not allowed to discipline their children without fear of do-gooders and the European court of human rights interfering.

Quite simply over the last 40 years all concept of citizenship and responsibility has evaporated because nothing is ever anyone's fault, someone else is always to blame.

I would not want to try and teach citizenship in school because today's parents of primary age children are the product of the disappearance of discipline in society and are more likely than not to punch the teacher and sue the school if they so much as even try to bring their little brats into line.

We are doomed people!

Answer 3

1. This is the primary responsibility of the parents to teach these things. Although I do understand your feelings, there needs to be something like this in schools to bring back respect and decency, even if it is to benefit the school itself. Maybe the shootings will stop?

Businesses have a 'code of conduct' for the employees, so should the schools.

2. Schools USED to teach these things to the kids. You see how much better they were than the kids are today.
3. They took GOD and BIBLE out of schools, need I say more?
4. the NCLB law that schools have to follow now does not ALLOW this type of teaching, nor does it give teachers TIME to teach this type of stuff even if they DID want to.
5.The NCLB law has a 'stipulation' that the gov't will give more money to schools who have less 'behavior problems' so instead of schools STOPPING the bad behavior, they IGNORE it and let it CONTINUE.
That's why you see the GOOD children getting in trouble when the BAD kids are messing with them. There doesn't have to be any type of documentation to PROVE the school has a behavior problem kids when they punish the GOOD kid.
6. Schools are RUINING all kids and I wish everyone could homeschool. Screw the 'socialization'
Look at what 'socialization' public school kids are getting: bullying with no stopping it in sight, drugs with schools turning their heads the other way, pressure to be popular and into sex,
NO THANK YOU FOR MY CHILDREN...

Answer 4

In my opinion, most of this is not the responsibility of the school, the community, or the government. This is the responsibility of the parent. If you expect respect and responsibility from your child, you will raise respectful, responsible children, at least most of the time.
Where I agree is with money and time management. There should be a required course in high school and again in college that teaches students about checking accounts, credit cards, and loans. They should learn the ins and outs of credit and budgeting. Same general idea with time management.
I'd be in a much better place today if I had learned these things back then!!

Answer 5

They don't teach these things because schools are overcrowded, teachers are paid poorly and they shouldn't be expected to "raise" our children. Teachers can only do so much trying to teach a child how to behave, then they go home and the parents don't give a crap. All these things that you speak of such as learning how to manage their time and money is the responsibility of the parents.

Answer 6

When you think about it,from Monday to Friday, teachers spend as much time with a child as the parents do. (If you don't count sleeping time)
When I went to school more than 50 years ago teachers did actually teach children responsibility and discipline. That doesn't mean that part of the day was set aside to do it,they did it as they went along. They made sure that a child did what he/she was told and punished misbehaviour and bullying if they saw it. They even took turns supervising school meals and saw that children queued up in a disciplined fashion and behaved at the table.. If a group of boys were skylarking on their way home from school and a teacher came along they would immediately begin to behave properly.
These days,it seems, most teachers are 9am to 3.30pm workers and don't give a damn what their pupils do before or after.

Answer 7

I'm sure that Schools do try to teach children how to be responsible, sensible and law-abiding during school time but surely as soon as they leave school it is down to the Parents and is their Responsibility to be good Role models and must take time out to show them these life skills. We must all play our part as parents in our childrens upbringing.

Answer 8

For the most part, these are PARENTAL responsibilities. Wouldn't it be nice if parents would send their children to school prepared to focus and learn reading, writing, math and other cognitive skills? Relatively speaking, children spend much more of their waking hours OUT of school than in. I must respectfully disagree with your assertion that it should be the school's responsibility to raise children.

Answer 9

Schools used to cover some of these things but then the gov't copped out and put responsibility back to the parents. Many parents do teach their kids but many - for whatever reason dont. Thats why we are suffering the fall out now.

Answer 10

uh...if it's the parent's job, and many parent's "aren't interested" in doing it.......

WHY does it get shifted to the school's responsibility???!! what is this world coming to?? how bout we start educating Parents how to take care of their future children, and putting more money into Educating people BEFORE they get married (marriage counseling), and BEFORE they have children??? just cuz u have the ability to make children doens't mean u should have one, especially if u can't raise one properly.

it's STILL not the school's responsibility..once u make a baby, u better do your BEST to raise him or her to the best of ur ability. if not, ur screwing society up, not the school.