NINE THINGS THEY SHOULD TEACH IN SCHOOLS

(Sept. 2016) Jenn Savadge of MotherNatureNetwork.com has come up with nine courses she wishes more schools would teach:
1. First aid. Along with CPR, students should learn other lifesaving skills such as the Heimlich maneuver as well as first aid basics like identifying an allergic reaction, making a splint, preventing infection and bandaging a wound.
2. Home repair. While most of us know how to unclog a toilet or hang a picture on the wall, far fewer of us can fix a drippy sink, change an air conditioner filter or hang a set of shelves.
3. Budgeting. Studies show that the vast majority of Americans lack the basic financial skills necessary to make important decisions when it comes to their own wallets.
4. Car repair. Everyone should know how to jump start a dead battery, how to change out a battery, how to check the air pressure in your tires, how to change a flat, how to pump gas and check the oil level.
5. Swimming.
6. Self-defense. Not karate, but teach kids how to protect themselves: how to prevent bullying, how to identify dangers on the street and how to react in an emergency. Self-defense classes help build confidence by teaching kids they have the power to keep themselves safe.
7. Cooking. Let’s bring back home ec for all students so kids can learn how to make nutritious, homemade food for themselves.
8. How to file taxes.
9. Computer coding. All students should learn about technology and the different ways they can use it to advance in whatever career they pursue. In the U.S., nearly 90 percent of schools offer no computer science classes, according to the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
* How can this stuff be nearly as important as learning what a peninsula is, or who was King of England in 1460, or the major exports of Swaziland?
* I would also add: Teach everyone how to NOT drive in the left lane unless you’re passing.
* Sorry, but when it comes to teaching useful stuff, our schools have a Zero Tolerance policy.
* Mother Nature Network? My, aren’t we full of ourselves.
* Of course, if we taught them all this, the reading and math would have to go.
* Not that they haven’t gone already.
* If you really want to prepare students for the future teach them how to build a campfire.
* Teach them how to find a campsite where roving gangs of the displaced can’t find them.
* PHONE TOPIC: What skills should schools be teaching that they aren’t?