Specialized/Practical Topics

Overview

Specialized/Practical Topics are topics such as home economics, finance, and classes that teach students practical life skills. The curriculum in many school have not been including topics and classes such as these as much as they should, or as much as people would want them too. More examples of what should be taught in schools are, how to handle money, how to establish credit, how to cook, how to find a job, and how to manage time. A lot of school curriculum spends time teaching kids about the powerhouse of the cell instead of how to build themselves a good life and many people and organizations think that that needs to change. Many Students do not go on to secondary school, either a 2 year degree or 4 year degree, and so for these students they must immediately go into the real world and figure out how to do these life skills on their own. Our school systems should be preparing our students with more practical life skills than just useless information that they will never use in the real world.

The Details

http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-life-skills-not-taught-school

This website gives a lot of example of what schools teach and what they don't teach, for example it is mentioned that schools do teach the basics of money such as what it is, how to use it and why we need it, but that it it, it does not teach students how to handle it once you start making it. Of all of the topics mentioned in the overview, it is stated that schools only teach the basics of what these topics are, but not how to use these topics and apply them to real life.

The Problem

The main problem with this is that schools are spending too much time on topics that are not for everyone, for example kids will struggle in their biology class learning about cells, yet they don't know how to sign a check. I came out of junior year fo high school knowing that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but i didn't know how to properly budget my money.

The Solution

One of the main solutions to this problem is more funding for schools. If school were to be funded more, then they could pay for the curriculum to be able to fit in classes like these and be able to hire teachers capable of teaching these topics. Teachers want to prioritize these topics but the curriculums do not allow it, and the budgets do not have room for it, schools and the government need to prioritize practical topics.