If You Could Devise A Course ...

[Trippy]

Of course, most of you know that I am a high school teacher. Just a few points:

Some kind of course which helps to prepare the child for adulthood. They would get taught about the importance of eating well and exercising. They would be taught about how important it is to treat other people with respect. How to manage their money. They would be encouraged to think about what they are going to do after they leave school, and they would be provided with the advice they need for the next stage of their education etc.

This is called parenting. Unfortunatly, it's not done now. We have a generaton of teenagers who haven't got a clue, and don't want the sage advice of their teachers - it's all about their peers.

There are courses (Food and Nutrition, Economics, Designing Your Future, Workplace Math for Everyday Living, Careers). In high school, though, students are not mature enough to use this information, but hopefully, they retain some of it.

Personal finance, like Picard said... teach kids how to budget their money, balance a checkbook (not that people still do that), how credit cards work, basics of the stock market, investing and saving for retirement, filing income tax returns, all that good stuff that students leave school clueless about. I think it would be a good class for junior year students so when people turn 18 it will be reasonably fresh in their minds.

Again, there ARE courses that teach these skills. Students under 18 just don't 'get it', Mainly because their brains (the pre-frontal cortex) are underdeveloped. The pre-frontal cortex is the part of the brain that 'thinks ahead' to consequences of actions (or inaction). It is not fully developed until 21+

^Yeah. High school needs to spend less time preparing people for college and more time preparing people for LIFE.

We try my friend, we try. Again, lack of parenting and maturity of the student. They don't 'get' the message we send.

I'm in favour of experimental, think-for-yourself, applied learning, over strict book and blackboard stuff. So I'd try to devise a project that allows children to explore the full breadth and depth of their intellectual and creative talents.

There may be a difficult objective set by the teacher, and the project is to try and reach for that objective. The teacher would oversee the group and help with the allocation of tasks for the kids, but the kids themselves decide what the tasks are.

It would also be up to the kids to coordinate all the separate parts of their project themselves, and bring them all together as the project progresses.

The teacher can regularly take time with book and blackboard stuff to teach the group what they need to know in order to explore the ideas they have as they emerge.

There can be a great sense of achievement that this difficult task was tackled through skill and cooperation.

Man, do I wish my students could handle that! If they didn't have the structure I gave them...chaos ensues! We can guide them and some of the smarter, well behaved (read parented well) students CAN be creative and work together without me having to intervene. Those rare students, however, are not the rule, but the exception.

*sighs* I DO love teaching, but it does seem like we are communicating with a brick wall. Hopefully, we create a crack or two

 

[greenguy]

^^I agree, Trippy. There is so much blamed on school systems and teachers and curricula programs for not learning "real world" stuff, but this is what parents are responsible for. Do I want public school teachers talking to children about changing oil, writing checks, and how to use condoms? Not necessarily, but if no one else is doing it (which seems to be the case), sign me up. Open parenting and direct communication are sorely lacking; just because you dump your child in a public institution for a few hours while you work, doesn't mean that they are going to exit that institution as adults.

 

[John Picard]

^^I agree, Trippy. There is so much blamed on school systems and teachers and curricula programs for not learning "real world" stuff, but this is what parents are responsible for. Do I want public school teachers talking to children about changing oil, writing checks, and how to use condoms? Not necessarily, but if no one else is doing it (which seems to be the case), sign me up. Open parenting and direct communication are sorely lacking; just because you dump your child in a public institution for a few hours while you work, doesn't mean that they are going to exit that institution as adults.

Like I stated earlier, the teachers are stuck having to place too much emphasis on standardized testing [sarcasm] Thank you, No Child Left Behind [/sarcasm], and as has been pointed out, too many parents are lazy. I really feel that compulsory education is not a terrific benefit to society and neither is the "one size fits all" approach to the education system.

 

[JiNX-01]

I would propose civics and government.

Need I say more?

 

[RoJoHen]

^Yeah. High school needs to spend less time preparing people for college and more time preparing people for LIFE.

We try my friend, we try. Again, lack of parenting and maturity of the student. They don't 'get' the message we send.

Maybe. My teachers were too busy trying to prepare us for standardized tests for fear of losing state funding.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Personal finance, like Picard said... teach kids how to budget their money, balance a checkbook (not that people still do that), how credit cards work, basics of the stock market, investing and saving for retirement, filing income tax returns, all that good stuff that students leave school clueless about. I think it would be a good class for junior year students so when people turn 18 it will be reasonably fresh in their minds.

Again, there ARE courses that teach these skills. Students under 18 just don't 'get it', Mainly because their brains (the pre-frontal cortex) are underdeveloped. The pre-frontal cortex is the part of the brain that 'thinks ahead' to consequences of actions (or inaction). It is not fully developed until 21+

Not trying to sound flip, but how do you explain those of us who WOULD have been able to handle it?

Interpersonal relationships--that I wasn't good with at that time, granted. But give me money to manage and I could do it. I moved out at 17, never overdrafted, had a credit card and never got it out of control, and I truly believe I could have managed money at an even earlier age. I was always very interested in how everything worked and my parents went to great lengths to explain how it all worked, what constituted a good investment, and so on.

Now the class I would want to teach...I would want to teach a Christian studies course. But I would do it very differently from the teacher I had. I would want to show kids that you don't have to turn your brains off or ignore the obvious evidence of your eyes. And I would above all want to model compassion that does not discriminate between those who agree and those who disagree. Someone like that is not frequently permitted to hold a position like that...at least, not in a Protestant-run school. And to have the opportunity to do that...it would be worth so much.

 

[Kestra]

I just wanted to point out that I deliberately left this open-ended so as to get a wide variety of ideas. Obviously certain classes would never be included, or wouldn't be appropriate, or whatever. It's just interesting to see what people come up with and I think much of it speaks to their own experiences in high school, and then as an adult.

 

[Canadave]

I would propose civics and government.

This is a required (half) course to graduate high school in Ontario.

 

[Trippy]

^Yeah. High school needs to spend less time preparing people for college and more time preparing people for LIFE.

We try my friend, we try. Again, lack of parenting and maturity of the student. They don't 'get' the message we send.

Maybe. My teachers were too busy trying to prepare us for standardized tests for fear of losing state funding.

Well, in Ontario, we only have one that students have to pass (a Literacy test that they do in Grade 10) in order to graduate. It is not tied to funding.

Personal finance, like Picard said... teach kids how to budget their money, balance a checkbook (not that people still do that), how credit cards work, basics of the stock market, investing and saving for retirement, filing income tax returns, all that good stuff that students leave school clueless about. I think it would be a good class for junior year students so when people turn 18 it will be reasonably fresh in their minds.

Again, there ARE courses that teach these skills. Students under 18 just don't 'get it', Mainly because their brains (the pre-frontal cortex) are underdeveloped. The pre-frontal cortex is the part of the brain that 'thinks ahead' to consequences of actions (or inaction). It is not fully developed until 21+

Not trying to sound flip, but how do you explain those of us who WOULD have been able to handle it?

Well, you'd be more sucssesful in your courses, and subsequently, life.

I would propose civics and government.

This is a required (half) course to graduate high school in Ontario.

Yes, Civics, and the other half credit-Careers, are reqiured in grade 10.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Trippy--my question is more, how do you explain, if the brain supposedly can't handle it, that some young people ARE able to do it?

 

[Jadzia]

^ I would say that social / psychological theories are all statistically validated theories. So they succeed noticing trends and describing a majority fairly well. But a trend is just a trend, so is not applicable to 100% of persons.

 

[ebusinesstutor]

1. Entrepreneurship: Taught by an actual successful business owner, not a teacher. Critical to teach kids how to create abundance for themselves instead of being a corporate drone.

2. Toastmasters: Teach them public speaking and how to research and prepare presentations.

 

[Trippy]

Trippy--my question is more, how do you explain, if the brain supposedly can't handle it, that some young people ARE able to do it?

The teenage brain does not predict the consequences of their actions. The pre-frontal cortex is not fully developed until 21+ for males and 19+ for females (this data is still being challenged)

That said, maturity and brain development (which the literature suggests is a correlation) can vary from person to person (depending on genetics and social/cultural factors).

For example, I graduated and struck out on my own (with a friend) at 17. We managed to work, bank, shop, and care for ouselves fine.

We did, however, still do immature things (drinking to excess, drug use, poor boyfriend choices) that we eventually learned better.

 

[Trippy]

1. Entrepreneurship: Taught by an actual successful business owner, not a teacher. Critical to teach kids how to create abundance for themselves instead of being a corporate drone.

Which would be a fantastic idea-we do have guest speakers-however a successful business owner (who are successful because they work hard) would not have the time it takes to teach a course.

2. Toastmasters: Teach them public speaking and how to research and prepare presentations.

This is in the curriculum (in Ontario) in all courses. Oral Communication is a strand in each course.

 

[Kestra]

I know several business owners who would be more than happy to assist with a course like the one proposed.

I get that you're part of a school system and you have more insight than some of us, Trippy, but just because you guys teach something in Ontario doesn't mean the rest of us have gone through it. Once again, this was meant to be an open-ended question that didn't have the requirement of being practical or even feasible. I don't know why, but you seem determined to point out negatives with almost all the ideas proposed in the thread.

 

[Trippy]

Not the negatives, just the proposed courses exist!

I can only speak to Canada/Ontario because that's where I live. America is not the only country represented on this board!

That said, I would love to see a course in Writing that covers all the genres like SciFi, Horror, Fantasy etc., not just aim kids to write a certain, acceptable (and bland) style of 'literature'

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Trippy--my question is more, how do you explain, if the brain supposedly can't handle it, that some young people ARE able to do it?

The teenage brain does not predict the consequences of their actions. The pre-frontal cortex is not fully developed until 21+ for males and 19+ for females (this data is still being challenged)

That said, maturity and brain development (which the literature suggests is a correlation) can vary from person to person (depending on genetics and social/cultural factors).

For example, I graduated and struck out on my own (with a friend) at 17. We managed to work, bank, shop, and care for ouselves fine.

We did, however, still do immature things (drinking to excess, drug use, poor boyfriend choices) that we eventually learned better.

I find myself wondering how much of that is actual brain development and how much of that is simply down to society not expecting more out of its young people and MAKING them think out the consequences of their actions. If you know well before you leave the house that things have consequences, and not only that, you have FACED the consequences of your actions before moving out, then that's going to enforce a much different attitude than letting one's kids get away with murder.

I personally think if you are MADE to be responsible, then you will be. But our society does not do that, and I have to imagine that as a teacher you've seen a lot of the unfortunate results in the classroom of parents and prior teachers failing to hold kids' noses to the grindstone (metaphorically speaking).

 

[JiNX-01]

I would propose civics and government.

This is a required (half) course to graduate high school in Ontario.

Well, as far as I can tell, it isn't taught in the U.S.

 

[RoJoHen]

In the state of Illinois, Economics and Government/US History are required for graduation. However, in my school, nobody took them seriously. And for some reason, I don't remember taking Economics. I think I was exempt because I was in Honors Math or something.

 

[Amaris]

In the state of Illinois, Economics and Government/US History are required for graduation. However, in my school, nobody took them seriously. And for some reason, I don't remember taking Economics. I think I was exempt because I was in Honors Math or something.

It is in Ohio, too, but in most of my classes, the teacher was also the Football coach.

It made learning very... interesting.