Thank God that I had “mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” driven into my skull during school. That has really paid off in the real world… NOT. Come on, people! What is going on with our public school system? Little to nothing that I learned in school has helped me in the real world. Basic math and reading are a must for survival, but why on Earth is it necessary for children to learn “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” No… In 1492, Christopher Columbus was an asshole who enslaved and murdered thousands of Native Americans for his own personal benefit. There is so much more that kids are being robbed of during their 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and 180 days a year in school than time. They are robbed off information that could GREATLY benefit them for the rest of their life, but instead they will learn how to play Hot Cross Buns on the recorder.
Credit. Credit means so much once you become an adult. Your credit score isn’t just a number, it’s the number that defines your “worth” as a citizen. How many of us got a credit card when we were fresh out of high school and maxed it out without a second thought? I’m guilty here… Free money, right? WRONG! Plus, when you establish credit, there’s generally a high interest rate to boot. The banks are getting richer while the masses are growing poorer.
How to Balance a Checkbook. Most of this new adult generation is terrible with their finances. We never learned that basic fundamentals of balancing the money that we have. Whatever we have learned, was from our parents. If it wasn’t for working in retail, I probably wouldn’t even know how to write a check. Thanks a lot, “No Child Left Behind”. More like “Leave Every Child Behind and Blind”.
Gardening and Basic Survival. You know, because food is kind of important. What would we do if there was a massive worldwide catastrophe and we lost all electricity? You might think about gasoline powered generators. Honestly, how many of us could afford that, or depending on the circumstances, have access to a gasoline powered generator? Slim to none. Once the grocery and department stores were looted and diminished, there would be no other way to eat than to fend for yourself. Gardening would be absolutely essential to survival, but we wasted our time in school learning about things that didn’t matter.
How to Change a Tire on Your Car. This is huge. You are traveling to a new place, far away. Your tire blows and you have no idea how to change it. Will you rely on AAA? Will you pray to God that a stranger takes pity on you? Some of you are shaking your head right now and thinking “Who doesn’t learn how to change a tire before they learn to drive a car?” THE MAJORITY. That’s who. While you’re stranded on the side of the freeway wondering where it all went wrong, kids are in school dissecting frogs because it’s so important. Luckily, I’ve never been this person (shout-out to my dad), but I could have easily been thanks to the public school system.
Simple Home Repair. I have a friend who had a major water leak in the house that she is renting, and had no idea where to turn the water off. Therefore the damage was much more substantial than it could have been had she known. *Sigh*. It’s not as uncommon as you may think. However, she can write a very compelling Haiku… Does that count for anything?
Home EC. I’ve heard of Home Economics, but by the time I reached high school, they had gotten rid of it altogether. Not only is this generation mostly worthless at cooking, some people can’t even sew a button onto a shirt. The only reason I’m worth a damn at either one (cooking/sewing) is because my mother took the time to teach me. Thanks, mom!
Honestly, I could keep going for hours. Our school system has failed us. 13 years of school (14 in you count Pre-K) and we are all in our 20’s and 30’s, fumbling around, looking for food, maxing out our credit cards and wondering how to “adult”. How did this happen when we spend so many years being educated? It’s because we learned how to sell coupon books and cookie dough instead of learning the vital fundamentals of the world in which we live.
