Income Inequality

[teachercd]

Well they already had the best of both worlds for years. It was called Home Economics and it was part of every high school curriculum. 

Understanding food, meals, & shopping. What raising children actually entails. The cost of living and how to budget. 

But for some reason, Home Economics was only for girls. 

Heck no it wasn't!  That was one of my few "A's" in high school!

 

[RedDenver]

So, let me get this straight.  It's not important for kids to learn history of major historical points in history like the Magna Carta, or the Holocaust, or American civil rights so that we have an educated populace on those issues.....  But, it's more important for teachers to spend time teaching kids how to file their taxes?  Because they can google all those other issues???

I googled "how to file my taxes" and came up with 65,000,000 results in .62 seconds.  The first 5 are from the US government giving official information on....actually filing your taxes.

But...hey....we don't need to know about different times in history where tyrannical or horrible forms of governments took power and what the results were....or how we came to have the freedoms we have now.

I think you're confusing teaching history to memorizing dates. Learning about basic biology is useful, but memorizing the names of all the bones in the human body is not.

I'm not sure how to separate out useless memorization from learning such that education is improved, but I think it's a good idea.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Heck no it wasn't!  That was one of my few "A's" in high school!

When a bunch of us guys couldn't get the classes we wanted, we agreed to go all in together on the full compliment of Home Ec classes.

The teacher's were a bit thrown off at first --- seriously, there had been zero guys in these classes -- but they got used to it, and we went from being s#!t disturbers to good students who were learning a lot. 

I do remember that my buddy Kevin and I got 50 extra credit points -- basically an entire grade bump -- for cleaning out a kitchen disposal that had gotten clogged, because the teacher thought it was so gross. So some gender stereotypes worked in our favor. 

 

[teachercd]

When a bunch of us guys couldn't get the classes we wanted, we agreed to go all in together on the full compliment of Home Ec classes.

The teacher's were a bit thrown off at first --- seriously, there had been zero guys in these classes -- but they got used to it, and we went from being s#!t disturbers to good students who were learning a lot. 

I do remember that my buddy Kevin and I got 50 extra credit points -- basically an entire grade bump -- for cleaning out a kitchen disposal that had gotten clogged, because the teacher thought it was so gross. So some gender stereotypes worked in our favor. 

Ha!  That is awesome!

Did you have a shop class?  We did but I never took and I wish I would have because I don't know anything about cars and when my Dad tried teaching me I basically didn't pay attention.  

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Ha!  That is awesome!

Did you have a shop class?  We did but I never took and I wish I would have because I don't know anything about cars and when my Dad tried teaching me I basically didn't pay attention.  

Auto shop was for the losers and delinquents at our school. I think you were actually required to smoke cigarettes.

Now those bastards are making $125 an hour.

Now I wish I had taken it because it was a real life skill I could have used for the rest of my life, saving me real life money. And I am strongly advocating for my son to take it at his high school, where they've had trouble finding and keeping shop teachers. 

 

[teachercd]

One school I taught at...all the kids chewed in shop class and the teacher either didn't care or didn't know...but you could walk in there and chat with some of the kids or the teacher and they would all just be chewing away.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

You can talk about the way parents raise kids today, but my parents were Depression-era kids who took absolutely nothing for granted.

They raised two boys with the same prudent values.

My brother spent money on impulse for whatever struck his fancy.

I loaned my brother money and charged him interest. 

Sometimes it's just a personality trait.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Basically, what this thread is saying is that the school can't teach everything to a kid even if that's their goal.  As a parent, you need to teach your kid certain skills and personal management.  If you don't your kid suffers as an adult.

I read somewhere where a parent who does a crappy job of raising their kids, can screw up three generations.  I can believe that.  

Just think about that when you're letting your kid just be a loser.

 

[teachercd]

Basically, what this thread is saying is that the school can't teach everything to a kid even if that's their goal.  As a parent, you need to teach your kid certain skills and personal management.  If you don't your kid suffers as an adult.

I read somewhere where a parent who does a crappy job of raising their kids, can screw up three generations.  I can believe that.  

Just think about that when you're letting your kid just be a loser.

Well said.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Basically, what this thread is saying is that the school can't teach everything to a kid even if that's their goal.  As a parent, you need to teach your kid certain skills and personal management.  If you don't your kid suffers as an adult.

I read somewhere where a parent who does a crappy job of raising their kids, can screw up three generations.  I can believe that.  

Just think about that when you're letting your kid just be a loser.

There was an interesting article a few years back in the Atlantic about child development. About how parents were shocked to learn that their kids behaved differently at school then they did at home. 

Article basically said that kids have to learn to play by multiple rules, and the rules of the Playground can be very different than the rules at Home. The same kid will have to learn to navigate both. 

Some kids might even be better off following the rules of the playground in their adult life. Helicopter parents, chilly disciplinarians, and checked-out latchkey parents all have different ways of screwing you up. 

So there's actually three sources of ethical and practical learning:  what you're taught at home, what you're taught at school, and how to survive on the playground. All three can come in handy.

 

[B.B. Hemingway]

I have long said that high schools should work with their community more.  There are many many many students that do not plan on attending college and that is fine but I think that for those students, if they want, they should have the chance to get started in a trade/apprentice program.  Welding, Electric, Plumbing, Concrete, whatever.

So the school works with those unions and those unions work with the school (or non-union too) and the student starts his/her apprentice program while they are in the second semester of their junior year, they finish up core classes and then leave to learn that trade, they get paid for their work (that is the key) with a % of that payment being kicked back to the union/company for training them.  The union/company would agree to hire the student on, full time, at the end of the 1.5 training period IF they meet the requirements, whatever those would be.

Clearly there is a ton more involved with this but that is where I would try and start.

Mike Rowe is doing a ton towards those efforts..... 

(Another thought.... Is Mike Rowe the smartest man alive?)

 

[teachercd]

Mike Rowe is doing a ton towards those efforts..... 

(Another thought.... Is Mike Rowe the smartest man alive?)

He is an opera singer too, I think.

 

[funhusker]

I have long said that high schools should work with their community more.  There are many many many students that do not plan on attending college and that is fine but I think that for those students, if they want, they should have the chance to get started in a trade/apprentice program.  Welding, Electric, Plumbing, Concrete, whatever.

So the school works with those unions and those unions work with the school (or non-union too) and the student starts his/her apprentice program while they are in the second semester of their junior year, they finish up core classes and then leave to learn that trade, they get paid for their work (that is the key) with a % of that payment being kicked back to the union/company for training them.  The union/company would agree to hire the student on, full time, at the end of the 1.5 training period IF they meet the requirements, whatever those would be.

Clearly there is a ton more involved with this but that is where I would try and start.

I'm an Industrial Tech teacher and love this.  I've said before on this site that kids are pretty much done with high school classes by the end of the sophomore year.  Trust me, I love when freshman sign up for our classes because I know they are interested.  If a senior signs up for Woods I, he is looking for a place to hide his last year.

Let the kids that just want to be done, be done and go work for McDonalds (not that there's anything wrong with that  ).  Let the kids who want to learn a trade begin learning that trade "seriously" so they are ready to work at age 18.  And for the kids that want to go to a 4 year school, make the Junior and Senior year strictly college prep.  Maybe that way college could get a little tougher and actually get the higher thinking they want to have.

 

[teachercd]

I'm an Industrial Tech teacher and love this.  I've said before on this site that kids are pretty much done with high school classes by the end of the sophomore year.  Trust me, I love when freshman sign up for our classes because I know they are interested.  If a senior signs up for Woods I, he is looking for a place to hide his last year.

Let the kids that just want to be done, be done and go work for McDonalds (not that there's anything wrong with that  ).  Let the kids who want to learn a trade begin learning that trade "seriously" so they are ready to work at age 18.  And for the kids that want to go to a 4 year school, make the Junior and Senior year strictly college prep.  Maybe that way college could get a little tougher and actually get the higher thinking they want to have.

Thank you!

I appreciate that.  I have thought about this for years now and I think it would be an amazing program for everyone.  Imagine being a HS student that basically hates school...then imagine that student making 16 dollars an hour for 4 hours a day and learning a trade that will end up making him/her 35 - 100 dollars an hour.  It is a no brainer

I also think there should be HS run companies...companies that do decks, siding, gutters, windows, garage doors, driveways, you name it.  The possibilities are freaking endless..."cheap" labor for 1.5 years that leads to kids learning how to do things!

 

[Mierin]

I'm an Industrial Tech teacher and love this.  I've said before on this site that kids are pretty much done with high school classes by the end of the sophomore year.  Trust me, I love when freshman sign up for our classes because I know they are interested.  If a senior signs up for Woods I, he is looking for a place to hide his last year.

Let the kids that just want to be done, be done and go work for McDonalds (not that there's anything wrong with that  ).  Let the kids who want to learn a trade begin learning that trade "seriously" so they are ready to work at age 18.  And for the kids that want to go to a 4 year school, make the Junior and Senior year strictly college prep.  Maybe that way college could get a little tougher and actually get the higher thinking they want to have.

I think there are countries who do it this way. I know England has the A level and AS level exams where the students pick what they want to focus on, but I don't know a lot about it. I think maybe they are only required if you want to go to University. But I don't know if it's hard to get hired at a regular job without them or not.