Education system flaws

[Mick]

After talking about Advanced driver training for young drivers (in the RG Inn THREAD) I was thinking why dont they teach more life skills at school. Why dont they teach things like first aid, CPR, finance management, even how to fill out a tax form. Also things like basic safety around things like electricity, gas, dangerous chemicals, etc. I sure there are plenty more things I havent thought of.
Sure they do teach alot of essential skills at school but I can remember doing plenty of classes thinking I was learning something I would never use. Im sure everyone can relate to that..... :D

Being an old bugger I havent been to school for 13 years :D so im sure a lot has changed since then. Is there anyone at school who has subjects that they think will be useful in life?.... or do you have subjects you dont like, you think is a waste of time?

[TimidAngel]

personally i think that you are correct on most points. both of my parents are teachers and they feel that they cant teach their students the things necessary for life at times. however there are classes where you learn first aid and cpr if you know where to look. and there is always rop

[Mick]

personally i think that you are correct on most points. both of my parents are teachers and they feel that they cant teach their students the things necessary for life at times. however there are classes where you learn first aid and cpr if you know where to look. and there is always rop

I know about the first aid and CPR classes you can do but how many people could be bothered doing them. I did them for a Tech course I was doing... I think it was cause we work with electricity.... its dangerous even if you know what you are doing. After doing the course I was glad I did it and wished I had done it earlier, although I havent need to use those skills yet :)

What is rop??

[bubba]

well we learn cpr, tax managing and stuff like that in the ciriculum

[Arkacia]

I went to high school in Queensland, and one of our compulsory courses was "Citizenship education" (I passed with very high marks). It taught us about the government, how it works, its departments, where to go for various problems, and even how to fill in a dole form :D.

I would like to see Australian schools bring in driver education like I think most, if not all, American schools have. At least then, the kids will have some idea what to expect before they get behind the wheel. Showing them a few icky films of road carnage may help as well. It won't stop all of them from driving like idiots, but may save some.

[Lex]

Whilst we're on driver education, I'm not sure about how it works there but here when you get behind the wheel you're either with someone who has been driving for +3 years and is over 21 or with a qualified instructor. Most are with a qualified instructor in a dual control car. And to be perfectly honest, for the rest it depends on how responsible the person they're with is. I found that a suitable enough driver education, although I'm not sure of the system there.

As for the few icky films of road carnage those are all on the "don't speed" adverts and "Don't drink-drive" ads. I wonder whether the ads here are anything like those over there? If I can find a copy of one I'll point you to it slightly later.

It won't stop all of them from driving like idiots, but may save some.
Typical :rolleyes: We don't all drive like idiots to start with..honest :)

I was thinking why dont they teach more life skills at school. Why dont they teach things like first aid, CPR, finance management, even how to fill out a tax form. Also things like basic safety around things like electricity, gas, dangerous chemicals, etc. I sure there are plenty more things I havent thought of.

I have to say, it'd be a sad day when they have to teach how to fill in a tax form and make it compulsory. The problem isn't that these subjects aren't compulsory. The problem isn't even that they aren't widely available [mostly ..they are]. The problem is as you stated it: People can't be bothered. And why is that? Because the students themselves are failing. In What way?

Well, the way I see the education system as a whole is that they are there to teach you the basic subjects, the essentials, the core principles. For example basic math and english skills. These are there for the student to build on. How boring would it be to be "spoon-fed" ALL material you're ever going to need? The idea is to give the basic principles and rely on the student's hunger for knowledge to learn the rest of the information by themselves and take matters into their own hands. We'd be in school for centuries if all material was spoon-fed because students just wouldn't have that enthusiasm that they do when they REALLY want to learn something.

It is the job of the student to go and seek those courses in CPR etc. and use their basic principles which they have been tought to ease them into these more specialised areas. I think people are blaming the education system as a whole for the downright laziness of some students. I went and did the courses I wanted to do. For the ones I couldn't do [for various reasons] I used the basic skills that I'd learnt at school and taught myself. Computers for example. Never had a lesson on computers in my entire life. I used my basic reading skills, scientific reasoning in some cases, knowledge of maths and physics to teach myself about computers. And..I know...enough. I'm satisfied. The problem is, in my opinion, that a lot of students are lazy and don't wish to learn or teach themselves anything.

Perhaps the reason for that is that we seem to just be spoon-feeding answers to students for exams so that they can pass, and get their nice shiny certificate and then the schools compete in league tables?? In my opinion, the most important thing is to teach students how to learn and how to teach themselves and provide them enough information such that they WANT to learn.

As for subjects I thought were a waste of time [I finished my A Levels last year - for reference :)], I thought English was a complete waste of time at GCSE. Certainly English literature. It is only now that I can look back and realise that it did have great benefits. It is fantastic that when I found myself in an an appropriate time/place to do so, I could discuss [something which came up recently] Dulce et Decorum Est, and refer to it with ease. I hated it at the time but I'm glad it was compulsory. I think a lot of us will hate the subjects we do and think they are useless without realising when they might come in handy or what we have ACTUALLY taken from them

Edit: I realise some of the things here may perhaps only apply to the education system here but most of the points should be global

[grazsrootz]

i always thought that english past learning vocabulary and how to speak, is just useless, they should spend more time making people literate, not telling them to read books like frankenstein. they should spend more time job education and getting you ready for a job.

[Arkacia]

Typical :rolleyes: We don't all drive like idiots to start with..honest :) I'll accept a well deserved slap over the wrist for that one :D.

I made a mistake, and meant to say it would'nt stop all the idiots driving like idiots. I am aware that not all teen drivers fall into that catagory, have been in cars with them :)

The icky films I was talking about are the nothing hidden type. They show whats left of the people who were in the cars, not just the cars, and are the real thing filmed at accident scenes by the police. We do have "shock" ads here with actors etc, but they're nowhere near as graphic as the police films.

[2xGuest426]

Sure they do teach alot of essential skills at school but I can remember doing plenty of classes thinking I was learning something I would never use. Im sure everyone can relate to that..... :D


That is 100 % true.

But, there's another side of the coin... Perhaps the pretty girl chewing gum that sat next to you needed the lesson you didn't. Yep, the one that become a secratery. Or perhaps it was the lil *enter a name here* with his huge eyeglasses & spots on his nose, who needed it... Yes, the one that become an accountant...

I assume you see what I mean? Not all of us need same skills... Also, not all of us are interested in same skills, nor will all learn at the same way.

So IMO its good to have various things taught at "basic schools" ,(comprehensive school?? I don't know your education system, or know the names of schools, but I assume you know what I'm talking about ) so that whatever path will youngster choose (or is it the path that choose youngster...) he/she will not have to start his/her life without any suitable knowledge.. I mean, if we taught only how to solve schrödinger's equation for a particle in funny shaped potentialwalls, a guy that becomes a painter would have significantly worse startingposition than the guy that becomes a theoretical physi* (I won't finish that word 'cause I tend to misspell it...).

The school that prepares one for some specific job is different though. And I am sure they could improve those schools a lot... I apologise making of a unnecessary post if that's the case :D

But however I tend to think theres something else wrong with schools of nowadays... I have been occasionally teaching from 7 to 20 years old kids, and I have noticed that at least here, kids at age of ~16 have lost their ability to process information. What do I mean? Well, they're quite good to collect information, if the information is in simple form. (IE if they have question, and they find EXACT answer from a book) But if the information they find is not simple enough... Quite a many pupils have great difficulties in finding answers from their book, if the answer is not given straight away. IE, if I ask a question "what is the color of the stripe in Danmark's flag". Then they have a line in their book saying: "Danmarks flag has a white cross in red background." Well, I am willing to bet my left testcle, that if I have average class of 25 students (age ~16), at least 4 of those do not find the answer :|

Instead if I asked what's the color of cross, they would all find the answer. Or if I asked : Danmarks flag has a cross in it. What color are the stripes?...

That example was not a great one, but I just could'nt figure out any better atm... But I guess you got the idea. I really don't know what to blame, but I bet "new teaching methods" with excessive usage of computers & videos etc. are part of the problem. I assume answers to problems (and other "data") are served to kids in too simple form. IE if you just watch the TV instead of reading, you get the ready picture in your head, no need to construct it. Instead, if you read a txt describing a picture (or something else) you need to process the information you read, to form the picture...

So... Is it so, that our new effective methods of teaching, have decreased the ability of learning???

...

/me looks the txt he just produced...
OMG... If everyone should read txt with such quality, they should have excellent ability to understand what they read, to get my point... :D

Well, now we see if you can process the data you read? :evilgrin: