Who else out there feels that the educational system failed to teach them all of the important things in life?

Answer 1

Definitely! I can't figure out why they don't teach kids to balance a checkbook, make a budget or do taxes. You're gonna have to deal with those things forever so why not teach it in school? How about teaching kids about mortagages, rent, loans buying a car? How helpful would THAT be! I hated history in school and I realized later it was just boring stuffy teachers. History is fascinating and I can't get enough of it now. How do they make everything so damn dry and boring? Why don't they have a DIY class and teach you how to fix the toilet and make dinner and other REAL skills for life? It's completely depressing that school turns kids away with the poor approach and poor teachers they offer. It makes it much, much harder for the good teachers too!

It doesn't help in my case that I found out years after I graduated that I had a learning disability/ If it had been discovered and understood I probably would have done much better. Somehow I got through it but I have discovered there are better ways of learning and the schools don't take into account that people learn differently. It's pretty sad because many of the smartest and most creative kids are left to founder because this isn't recognized. I also think many trouble makers are only trouble makers because of a disconnect with the way things are taught and possible undiagnosed learning disabilities. It's really terrible that many are left thinking they're stupid or unacceptable in society just because they think differently. I honestly think the schools could do better in that department.

Answer 2

I, too, have noticed this for a while. Not just here at YA, but on other chat boards and chat rooms in general. I would like to think that the people there are not representative of the majority of young folks out there. But the culture of text messaging and online abbreviations have contributed greatly to how many people write these days. I find myself using the shorthand quite often (IIRC, FWIW, ROTFLMAO, that sort of thing,) but I don't get the inherent laziness of not even bothering to spell out certain words, as so prominently displayed in the message you used as an example. I have to agree with the poster a few entries above this one somewhat. If you are determined to fail, you will, no matter what. But I also think our educational system is so dysfunctional that allowing students to fail has become the rule instead of the exception. Maybe if we paid our educators as much as we pay our actors and politicians, we'd see a little more improvement.

Answer 3

While I don't think the educational system should teach us everything, I have always believed that I was held up in school.
This would be being placed in Algebra in the 9th grade even though I always got an A in math.
Being told in Science that I should work slower even though one semester, I did almost twice the work necessary for an A. The teacher saw nothing to encourage.
In High School, my guidance counselors always told me to take easier classes despite maintaining a 3.30 GPA.
Even had to repeat a French class when I had already passed it with a B because I took a break one semester.
Simply put, I was never encouraged in school, but was discouraged by faculty on a regular basis.

Answer 4

What do you mean, "who else?" This implies that you feel let down in some way.

You seem to have learned enough to be able to afford a computer, the internet AND have the knowlege to be able to use it AND you apparently have the leisure time to indulge in asking daft questions. The educational system has provided you with the intellectual tools to do all this. What's more, your eductation was not paid for by you.

The "important things" as you call them presumably include what your family should have taught you about relationships, work ethic, honesty, integrity etc. That's not the 'systems' job. Don't blame 'them' for everying that's not quite as you'd like it.

Get back to school or grow up and appreciate what you have. Compared with 99% of the world's population you are as well off as a pig in ****.

Answer 5

I think the sad fact is that the educational system doesn't teach you everything you need to live, and quite frankly it shouldn't have to.

In the past you learned a lot from your parents, grandparents and siblings even before you started school. Even with working parents, I knew my alphabet, could count, and had started to read before starting primary school. I learned social skills hanging around with my friends and brother's friends, knew right from wrong, and learned many other leasons from (sometimes painful!) experience. You can tell a child a thousand times to be careful when running around in the park, but only when he falls and scrapes his knees will he learn the lesson!

Sadly these days families have become isolated. Working parents no longer have relatives living nearby to help with the raising of children. And children themselves are becoming isolated from each other, playing games on their own or indirectly via a computer rather than face to face, communicating via text and msn, etc.

And worse, many, many parents now consider it unsafe to allow their children to play out of the house unsupervised. The upshot of which is that social interaction is cut down even more.

It is a sad state of affairs with many victims and no one to directly blame.

Answer 6

I think that the educational system is not failure proof, but that many students do not take their education seriously. If you were placing importance on other things like work or friends and not on paying attention during classes, you may have yourself to blame.

Take classes that interest you and pick up the pieces. Move on and pay attention to what you are learning.

Answer 7

I don't think any educational system can do that, but I do feel far too many people are let down by schools. I blame the politicians - in the drive to measure and standardise they forgot what teaching is about and that children are individuals/

Answer 8

No education will teach you all the important things. A lot of life's lessons are learnt by living life and experiencing things.

Answer 9

I wouldn't say all of the important things in life, but some maybe
and then there'l be those that argue that the important things of life cannot be learned in the classroom
and then there are the chidlren that are failed altogether

Answer 10

Well, like every good 15 year old, I can make a website on MS Frontpage, a poster on Publisher and a letter template on Word.

But, when I get in the real world, myself, with 750 other pupils in my school, will be a bit stuck!