School Education? teaching unnecessary subjects?

Question

Do you believe that school systems teach unecessary subjects. In math for example, they choose to not teach things like, managing your checkbooks, finding your balance's, etc. but choose to teach...trigonometry, geometry, graphing, etc. I think school should teach more of life skills, things you will ACTUALLY use in everyday life. Many teachers say "There are careers that use it" yes that is true, but there are also many careers that DONT. I think this should be thought out while making the curriculum, even as im 16 years old, I STILL DO NOT KNOW HOW TO MANAGE A CHECKING ACCOUNT, FIGURE OUT BALANCES ETC! and they wonder why so many teens become in debt, and fail being on their own. opinions?

Answer 1

Your question is an interesting one, timeless, and one that has been asked for as long as there have been schools. People have always asked "What should schools teach?" and "How come schools don't teach this?"

The answer is quite complicated. Schools teach the curriculum that is determined by state, provincial or national government. Basically, it is determined by society and what society perceives as its needs. It is not determined by the teachers.

Schools cannot teach everything. There is not enough time in the school day. There will always be numerous things that people have to learn outside of schools - that is just the way it is. And it isn't likely that schools will change focus from academics to a less academic focus.

Believe it or not, how to balance a check book is something that most people have learned on their own, not in school. Possibly what schools are failing to do is to teach teenagers to be lifelong independent learners and how to find out about the things they don't know how to do. That is the most important tool we all need today - knowing how to learn independently.

I hope these thoughts help.

Answer 2

Good grief!! Aren't parents held accountable for anything anymore? Your mother can teach you how to keep a checkbook balanced. Do you know how to add and subtract? Well, there you go!! High school programs are becoming more set up for post secondary education: technical college or a university. If you spent four years learning how to play house than those that go to college to major in a field that requires a lot of math will be lost. Why are high schools doing this? That's easy. This country is to the point where you won't amount to a whole lot without a piece of paper saying you can do something other than flip burgers. Take classes in high school that you know will benefit you in the future. That's common sense. If you can't balance your checkbook, take business math if you have an extra elective.

Answer 3

The classic complaint is with mathematics: Where do we need to know the circumference of a circle? Why do we need to know the volume of a cube? Well the obvious answer is that school is for everyone. Some students might become bin-men and not need any of these skills. BUT what about those who want to be rocket scientists or engineers. If we remove these subject just because SOME students have no use for them then we will not allow these children to have the chance. And of course, the school want all children to learn all they can because NO ONE can be sure what they are going to do, so having a broad knowledge of subjects is Most Useful. Just because you might not need to know the volume of a cube maybe the person next to you might need to know. And who knows you could work in such a field also. People complain of RE but how will they be able to interact with people of different faiths properly if they have no idea about them. History can of most importance for those who will become politicians or writers. The skills learnt in History are of utmost importance in almost everyother subject. In conclusion, the fact is that while you are in school you do not know what field you will work in so anything can be useful. And we learn all practical things too, the government has said that all KS3 students must take Food Technology. And DT is given to all KS3 pupils. So what is the problem?

Answer 4

Check with your bank or credit union for courses or help on learning to manage a checking account and other banking things. They often have classes or knoww who does.

Every 16 yr old brings up your complaint at some point. The fact is that if you aren't good with numbers and calculations, you won't be able to balance your checkbook either.

I am surprised that you haven't been taught that. They used to teach it. I remember doing it in 6th grade.

Parents should teach those life skills anyway. Maybe it's not the school you should discuss this with....

Best Wishes,

Sue

Answer 5

a lot of the "useless" stuff really helps you understand other stuff later in life. As for the life skills, they do teach them, but generally to kids that are developmentally delayed. That doesn't seem fair, but I think the assumption is that kids will learn at home those important life skills. There are classes that will teach it, but again, it is often considered remedial coursework.

Obviously it isn't the case many times that you will learn these things at home, or you would not be so frustrated. You should pursue learning those things. You will only benefit from it as you seem to already recognize. Keep learning your curriculum too, as it really is important, trust me on this one.
Try the library, or the internet, etc for some of the things you need. I am sure some kind librarian or some other adult would be happy to help guide you in accessing your local resources.

Good luck, try not to get too disappointed in the school system. It really is better to gain as much knowledge as you can. It is a lot easier when you are younger to do so too.

Answer 6

I agree that students should learn the basics of financial management and some schools ARE incorporating that into the curriculum as early as 7th grade. It alaaso seems that sstudents must master the basic academic skills including math, writing, grammar, history, lieterature etc in order to be fully functioning members of a society that advances (as opposed to being stagnant or slipping backwards). But I agree with you on some of the higher level math in high school when kids would benefit from life skills training that they used to get at home before every parent had to work to support the family. I would encourage you to take the initiative and learn how to create and follow a budget including balance your checkbook. Even better lobby your school for a course! There are several fully developed already including one by a guy named Dave Ramsey.

Answer 7

Actually, I know so many "useful" things because of school, which I've already learned before. Most of my high school lessons have been just reviews of what I've already learned, and I'm in a "Blue Ribbon" school that has proven itself incompetent since I started. Though I am what many view as a "stupid sixteen-year old," school has failed to teach me anything useful. Many would argue that it taught me how to read and do math, but I already taught myself most of mathematics and how to read. I do not know how to write a resume, and my parents were terrible at teaching me. Most of my teachers are half-assing their way through the day, giving me packets or giving me link to websites, so they can play on their phones, and I'm not kidding about that. My current school has the deal with Apple about computers, and my online courses are completely pathetic. I'm doing stuff I should be taught verbally on a computer with poor teaching skills. I'm taking Latin, for instance, and I learned more Latin in eighth grade (didn't go towards my graduating points or whatever it's called) than I am doing it online. School is literally just a daycare, repeating information and pulling it out of their asses to get paid close to nothing and still act superior.

Answer 8

Schools use way to many "filler" subjects that have no use. Subjects such as Teacher Cadet, Freshman Seminar (which all mine was, was gardening), and countless other subjects like that. What schools need to teach is a Life-Skills class that teachs a lot of things we need in everyday life, not use these "elective" classes that the school basically throws you into.

Answer 9

Many teachers went to college aspiring to get higher degrees than a BA.. or BS. Many do not achieve this and decide to teach everyone harder classes to make themselves feel important and help more students get into college. Everyone does not belong in or need to go to college. I feel basics should be mastered first and then life skills and THEN higher levels of subjects. I am in the minority now, I'm getting older. I will tell you this, the majority of my classmates could read, write, spell and do math quite well. Those who didn't failed. Those interested in college took college prep, some technical skills and other general subjects. We were well educated and highly successful using this system. Although I do not like the term, I'm a baby-boomer.See our current statistics if you don't believe me.

Answer 10

Balancing a checkbook, should be a small part of Math. You are given the basic and advanced (depending how far in school you go) tools in school to succeed. how you use them is up to you. Balancing a check book is addition and subtraction! Don't tell me your school doesn't teach that!!!!