I was thinking recently about how important it is for schools to relate what they teach you to the real world as much as possible. I find that many of us leave school and kind of hit the fan of the real world. Ouch. What do you wish you had learned to better prepare you for life? I started compiling my own list:
- I wish I was bilingual. Living in MN where everyone spoke English made it seem totally pointless. That, and my language choices were German, Spanish, or French. The Spanish seems important to me…but the other two seem to be fading fast. I wish they offered Chinese at my school.
- I wish I learned about different kinds of savings, loans, stocks, money-market accounts and all that. I also wish I had learned more about credit cards and other “we’ll give you money if we can take your first born child” kinds of schemes. Things like comparing rental to home ownership, looking at smart ways to buy cars, etc. would have also been really helpful.
- My counselor told me not to take the small engines class because I was a “college bound” student. So, I took Calculus instead. No offense to Calculus, but I wish I had learned how an engine works, how to fix my own car, etc. That would have made me so much more functional. I also wish I learned other homey kinds of things like how plumbing works, effective ways of building a solid structure, etc.
- Modern History. I learned from ancient civilizations up until World War II. Never was taught anything past that. I’ve kind of had to pick up pieces & books here and there to learn it on my own time. They just didn’t teach it at my school.
- How to start a business and how to patent/produce an idea. I have an invention that’s in my head — how do I make it a reality?
Well, those are a few things for now anyway. It would be great if schools were more based in real-world experience. Maybe then the transition from school to real-life wouldn’t be so painfully awkward. One good thing is that I feel comfortable in my ability to research. So, I’ve been able to start to answer some of the things that I listed above through these resources. It just would have been nice to know before I graduated high school.
Steph Lewis's Blog
As far as learning languanges, I think that’s getting better. Some kids in my youth group are taking Chinese.
I also agree about the modern world history. The history I learned in school always ended at WWII, if we even got that far. Everything I know about the latter half of the twentieth century is what I’ve cobbled together from PBS specials, the History channel, and pop culture.
Some practical stuff would have been great, especially now that I’m a home owner. Though I also wish college would have stressed some more practical stuff. While at the time I had no interest in business, a couple classes wouldn’t have killed me and they’d be a big help.
My husband’s a patent lawyer- he could probably help you out. There are also tons of fantastic intellectual property law firms in CA because of the tech boom. You should try one of those before going to a ‘patent mill’- especially since a lot of them will do free consultations. If they eyeball your idea and think that it isn’t patent-able, a responsible attorney will tell you to hang on to your $$.
Lawyers can help you start a business, too but a good reference book would be much less expensive:)
Whoops! My hosuband is an IP lawyer, not a ‘patent lawyer’- there’s a distinction and I can’t remember what it is.
Well, at some point, you run into the problem of not having the time to teach you EVERYTHING when you’re in a school. Some if it is schools needing to adjust some, and others are just things that they can’t realistically do.
I think school counselors need to be trained a bit better and think a bit more. Sure, you may be college bound, but there’s a LOT of college majors that aren’t going to make use of Calculus, so maybe there’s something you can take for fun, or for knowledge, etc. It’s part of an Academic classes=greater than the arts or tech, maintenence classes that you get a lot in schools, I think.
The modern history, at least in the MN public school system, seems to stem from the fact that other classes, other than your general American and European history classes are supposed to cover. A lot of that stuff is supposed to be hit in 9th grade Civics/Government, or elementary school. The problem is that it isn’t usually, not sure what can be done about that, as classes usually run out of time.
The language one, I feel, is slowly changing in the US, but that may be changing to a “take Spanish stupid” kind of class. I think the attitude most (not all) have in Europe, of having one really good language, and another you can at least squeak by in. I’d say this issue and the lack of student and parent involvement/interest are two of the most major things facing our schools right now (a few others are, but these are up there).