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Absolutely this. We were actually taught basic finances, cooking, cleaning etc when I was in elementary school. They called it "hemkunskap" which literally tran
by mstade 9y ago
Absolutely this. We were actually taught basic finances, cooking, cleaning etc when I was in elementary school. They called it "hemkunskap" which literally translated to "home knowledge". I used to think it was useless then, except maybe for the cooking classes – I enjoyed those – but I can trace back A LOT of my deeply rooted knowledge for personal finances and other home skills to those classes. For instance, I moved away from home at age 15 to attend high school in a different town, and all of a sudden I had to deal with a bunch of things I never had to care about before, like weekly budgets and what not. Right then it dawned on me just how useful those classes actually were, and they really did help me out a lot.
I wish this had been a staple class throughout my entire stay in school. A lot of the stuff will be repetitive, but that's what it means running a home and a life – a lot of chores that you keep doing over and over, some maybe you'll optimize like hiring a cleaner (after working out it fits your budget!) or investing in technology that just makes things easier.
As you grow older, the classes would obviously need to become more advanced, but I think this would go a long way to make kids much more capable to deal with real world problems, and there's a lot of cross over with other subjects as well. I don't know if schools still do this, but when I went to elementary school we had wood working and/or sewing class. I enjoyed those, but we had those for way longer than we had home skills class, and it seems to me these three could be successfully combined.
- mgkimsal 9y agoagreed that having it repeated (with more advanced topics) would be more useful. learning about this stuff at age 9... doesn't hurt, but as you starting handling money (odd jobs, after school work, etc) a whole new set of issues comes up that most people aren't prepared for. we had 'home economics' in middle school, but only for one year, IIRC. We learned a bit of cooking, kitchen safety, and some sewing. But, AFAICR, no personal/home finance stuff (but it's been > 30 years - perhaps it was there and I missed the 8 minute lecture?)
- walshemj 9y agoBack then Home economics was designed to teach "girls" to be a wife whilst boys did metal/woodworking. School suggested that as a dyslexic I should do the typing course I didn't as that was for girls - in hindsight learning to type properly might have been a good idea
- Consultant32452 9y agoWith the going rate for blue collar skills going to shop class might have been a good idea too.
- walshemj 9y agoNot much traditional engineering jobs going in the UK though I did see a ground Worker team leader post advertised locally for more than th developer role :-( Btw Ground working is the PC term for Navvies
- mgkimsal 9y agowe had both. girls/boys did both home-ec and metal shop. we had wood shop too, and I do believe I took it, but the year before it was closed down because a teacher lost a finger (on a bandsaw, I think).
- wil421 9y agoWe also had dedicated cooking/cleaning and health classes but basic finance was usually bundled in as a chapter or two in health classes. Having a dedicated class for personal finance would be hugely beneficial. Especially for High School seniors. I don’t think the college prep courses really tell you what impacts student loans have. It’s more listed as an option you have if you need it but they glaze over the lifelong impacts.