Here's an education question for all my readers.
First, a little context. I think one good quality I possess is the ability to adapt. When I think "there's got to be a better way" I don't mind changing things around to try to find that better way. I see it as a survival skill, and it has served me well many times.
Well, I'm shifting gears on how I'm educating my daughter and I'd love some input. I'm hoping for good, well-thought-out answers.
What knowledge do you believe a young person should know when they leave high school and/or start living independently? What knowledge is essential in order to be prepared for life? Beyond the obvious.
I have my own thoughts on the matter, but I want to hear yours. I really want to hear yours, so don't hold back, even if you've never posted a comment before. Please, and thank you!
Well... my 2 daughters both complained about not knowing how to do banking stuff once they were out on their own.. not sure if this helps, lol...
ReplyDeleteIt helps.
DeleteMath is a language. Be frigging fluent. Logic is a foundation to thought. If they cannot befuddle you with numbers, they will try every logical stumbling block known to man.
ReplyDelete"Trust but Verify." And remember who has lied to you before. And
God Is Good.
Excellent. I'm weak on math, but have gotten much better since school.
DeleteLogic is important, too.
Here are suggestions I got in an email:
ReplyDeleteIn general categories:
First, the development of a personal ethical sense based on individual conscience, an ability to differentiate between right and wrong and to instill a preference for the right irrespective of obstacles and difficulties in living it. Second, an awareness and familiarity with tangible reality, both the physical (science, technology) and the social (primarily economics, to facilitate a capacity and ability for independent self-sufficiency).
I concur with Heinlein’s preference for generality instead of narrow specificity although not with all his tabulated examples. I fully agree with Cicero’s statement:
“Not to know what happened before one was born is always to be a child.”
---Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Oratore, II, c. 80 B. C.
And I thus regard the study of history as imperative to inform the student of the accumulated experience and knowledge of those who preceded them, and also to illuminate the failures as well as the successes of those prior endeavors. I also think that the pursuit of a knowledge of reality is best attained by a historical process of examination of all the specific subjects as such a broadly encompassing treatment of the convoluted path to truth can both better inform and also instill a useful sense of humility to the student. In this way a mention of supernatural or magical explanations for reality prior to the more detailed elaboration by slowly discovered and verified natural laws can allow the later to be seen as a more parsimonious and better explanations of that reality. In the same fashion, an historical awareness of failed and unproductive economic theories might best serve as a prevention of their repeated re-introduction as supposed ‘new” solutions for the present.
I do not think that a uniform or universal process of education or a curriculum is necessary or required to prepare a student for life. Each individual is unique and must be dealt with as such. There is no “one size fits all” system of education and any attempt to impose one will be better described as indoctrination, not genuine education. Because of this a genuine education should be self-directed by the individual student and the role of the teacher should be as steward and guider and facilitator, not as an imposer of their own predetermined conclusions; in spite of the fact that each teacher undeniably has their own. Because of this fact, the careful selection of a teacher by the student is also of fundamental importance. A true education should be a process of continual enlightenment not merely the rote adoption of a body of status-quo assumptions. As the old adage states, true education is being taught how to think, not what to think.
Knowing you, I wouldn't be surprised if you have already covered these things with your daughter, but how about the basics like cooking your own meals, balancing a checkbook, changing a tire, doing laundry, sewing at least well enough to make repairs to your clothes in a pinch etc.? (My mother made sure all of her boys knew how to fend for themselves.)
ReplyDeleteStill working on those.
DeleteTo be honest, I was terrible at keeping track in the old days of keeping hand-written entries in the checkbook, and would forget to enter checks, etc. I'm much better using electronics, and I never need to worry about backing it up, as I'm sure that I could always get a copy of my records from the NSA, if needed. ;D
DeleteI was pretty good with keeping up with my checking account balance back in the Olden Times. But I only write 3 or 4 checks per year, and I keep up with my balance on a note on my phone.
DeleteMy daughter seems to be pretty good about keeping track of her money and saving it for things she wants or needs. Honestly, I'm not sure how she keeps track of it, but I'm sure she uses technology of some sort.
And therein lies some of my conundrum. I don't want to focus too much on archaic things she'll probably never need to know. And if the grid collapses for good, what good will it do to know how to write checks? I'm still going to at least introduce some of this sort of thing to her, since the skills will be useful in other areas, too.
She did make herself a cosplay costume, from scratch, making her own patterns after I showed her the basic concept. (And she won first place in the novice division with the costume.)
It's easy to help her learn what she wants to learn. Harder when it's something I think she'll need but she isn't interested.
"It's easy to help her learn what she wants to learn. Harder when it's something I think she'll need but she isn't interested."
DeleteHehe. That's probably true for just about all of us.
Which is part of the reason school is, was, and always will be doomed to failure.
DeleteI just looked at my checkbook and I see I haven't written a check since May 2021. I guess I write fewer checks than I thought.
DeleteI'm noticing a divide between suggestions of skills vs knowledge.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge: History, literature, economics.
Skills: Math, communication/writing, "home economics".
Although, I realize there's a lot of overlap and those categories are fluid and fuzzy.
Almost every suggestion I found online focuses on skills. And I can see how skills can keep you alive now, while knowledge might enrich your life once survival is more certain. Both seem critically important, and I love learning both.