3 ms·

Really? Is it the place of school to teach you the basic life skills that you might expect people to learn from their families?

drdeadringer 10y ago
Parents and families are not always brimming with the time or energy or knowledge needed.
dmeola 10y ago
I feel like it is a mistake to assume all families will teach (or know) these skills. It seems like that assumption could perpetuate inequality. I was fortunate enough to be raised by two parents in a stable environment but that wasn't the case for some of my friends and cousins. They ask me for advice on buying a car, getting a mortgage, building credit, investing, etc. Some don't even understand why you would save money ("Isn't that what social security is for?"). They call me "the adult" but I was just lucky enough to have a father familiar with these concepts and willing to talk about them.
pavel_lishin 10y ago
Where do you draw the line between basic life skills that schools ought to teach you and the skills that parents should teach you? And why is the idea of overlap a bad one? How do you clearly divide this list into scholastic and familial responsibility, such that most people (let's say in America) will agree to it? * English * Literature * History * Rhetoric * Civics * Health education * Sex education * Mathematics * Chemistry * Physics * Music * Economics
- circlefavshape 10y ago
  Isn't it already divided? School doesn't teach you how to wash dishes or ride a bike or light a fire. Your parents are unlikely to teach you geometry. I didn't mean to say that an overlap is a bad thing, rather that societies provide many ways of learning, and school can't teach you everything. If you don't know how to do something it's not necessarily school's fault, and the solution isn't necessarily "more school"
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    I'm not saying it's not; I'm asking whether the relatively arbitrary line as it is currently drawn makes sense, and how hard we should all be wringing our hands about schools not preparing our children for the real world slash intruding on traditional family tasks or whatever.

drdeadringer 10y ago

Parents and families are not always brimming with the time or energy or knowledge needed.

dmeola 10y ago

I feel like it is a mistake to assume all families will teach (or know) these skills. It seems like that assumption could perpetuate inequality. I was fortunate enough to be raised by two parents in a stable environment but that wasn't the case for some of my friends and cousins. They ask me for advice on buying a car, getting a mortgage, building credit, investing, etc. Some don't even understand why you would save money ("Isn't that what social security is for?"). They call me "the adult" but I was just lucky enough to have a father familiar with these concepts and willing to talk about them.

pavel_lishin 10y ago

Where do you draw the line between basic life skills that schools ought to teach you and the skills that parents should teach you? And why is the idea of overlap a bad one? How do you clearly divide this list into scholastic and familial responsibility, such that most people (let's say in America) will agree to it? * English * Literature * History * Rhetoric * Civics * Health education * Sex education * Mathematics * Chemistry * Physics * Music * Economics

circlefavshape 10y ago
Isn't it already divided? School doesn't teach you how to wash dishes or ride a bike or light a fire. Your parents are unlikely to teach you geometry. I didn't mean to say that an overlap is a bad thing, rather that societies provide many ways of learning, and school can't teach you everything. If you don't know how to do something it's not necessarily school's fault, and the solution isn't necessarily "more school"
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  I'm not saying it's not; I'm asking whether the relatively arbitrary line as it is currently drawn makes sense, and how hard we should all be wringing our hands about schools not preparing our children for the real world slash intruding on traditional family tasks or whatever.