I believe there is a basic skill set that everyone should learn in their teens. Basic cooking, car maintenance, basic carpentry, basic wiring, and of course basic sewing. Things like sewing, carpentry, and wiring you probably wont use too often but they are useful at different points in your life. Basic cooking, or knowing how to cook a few good meals before you leave the house helps a lot. I think most schools still teach the basics but don't quote me on that. I hear we are a throwaway society here in the US but I am not sure if that is really true.
I'm not from the US, so I'll refrain from commenting on the situation over there, but where I'm from, they took out that "familial economy" class, as well as a general economy one (where one learnt the basics of interest calculations, inflation, and how the policy interest rate could influence the macro-economy) and one named "personal and social formation" which encompassed sexual education, among other useful relational abilities. All courses I had around two decades ago. I've put them in quotes because they're translations of the actual names.
To the narrow-sighted dimwit, these sure look like useless classes, but all the maths in the world will not feed you when your mother kicks you out of the house.
I think we should be asking ourselves what minimal basic knowledge we want all the population to have, no matter what they end up doing for work. That they will learn of their own will once they've chosen, anyway.
They're doing a pilot project to re-introduce sexual education now, but today's youth are still 2.5 classes late on older people, let alone the ideal we should strive for as a society.
Edit: I just saw it might not be completely clear that I agree wholeheartedly with your comment. ;-)
I believe there is a basic skill set that everyone should learn in their teens. Basic cooking, car maintenance, basic carpentry, basic wiring, and of course basic sewing. Things like sewing, carpentry, and wiring you probably wont use too often but they are useful at different points in your life. Basic cooking, or knowing how to cook a few good meals before you leave the house helps a lot. I think most schools still teach the basics but don't quote me on that. I hear we are a throwaway society here in the US but I am not sure if that is really true.
I'm not from the US, so I'll refrain from commenting on the situation over there, but where I'm from, they took out that "familial economy" class, as well as a general economy one (where one learnt the basics of interest calculations, inflation, and how the policy interest rate could influence the macro-economy) and one named "personal and social formation" which encompassed sexual education, among other useful relational abilities. All courses I had around two decades ago. I've put them in quotes because they're translations of the actual names.
To the narrow-sighted dimwit, these sure look like useless classes, but all the maths in the world will not feed you when your mother kicks you out of the house.
I think we should be asking ourselves what minimal basic knowledge we want all the population to have, no matter what they end up doing for work. That they will learn of their own will once they've chosen, anyway.
They're doing a pilot project to re-introduce sexual education now, but today's youth are still 2.5 classes late on older people, let alone the ideal we should strive for as a society.
Edit: I just saw it might not be completely clear that I agree wholeheartedly with your comment. ;-)
It's clear! I figured you weren't from the US and its good to know that basic skills are international.