It's not really a subject or topic, but schools need to really lay off the whole "do as much as you can do and then some," rhetoric they've been spewing since I've started school.
Schools not only want kids to take the hardest classes they can - they want them to go another step forward in order to get the kids to "challenge themselves." For some kids, the workload remains manageable, and they have a relatively stress free education, but many get pushed way to hard. There's a STEM program at my school that makes kids take like 12 - 17 AP classes over the course of 4 years. That means they're taking 3 - 4 AP classes a year, every year, for their entire high school career. To some it's a challenge, but it can't be good to spend 3 hours doing homework every night on top of the other obligations that many teenagers have.
Kids should be pushed to take challenges, but they also need to be taught when too much is too much. There's been many kids in my time that have become miserable, because the stress of grades and schoolwork keep them up at night and constantly bother them. When something goes wrong, it becomes the end of the world to them and they have a breakdown.
I've seen so many sad kids throughout my career, and I hate it.
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Basic life skills: How to fill out a W-4. How to file your taxes. A practical knowledge of Consumer Credit. Basic personal finance and budgeting.
It baffles me that schools don't cover these things with every student, as a part of their curriculum.
to build on that...
How to change a tire. How to perform basic first aid. How to grow plants.
First aid, definitely, as well as nutrition and health. Some schools offer health classes, but "some" isn't "all".
Decent sex education
Finance and taxes.
Critical thinking. Parents should be doing it from the beginning but it should be reinforced by schools.
It's not really a subject or topic, but schools need to really lay off the whole "do as much as you can do and then some," rhetoric they've been spewing since I've started school.
Schools not only want kids to take the hardest classes they can - they want them to go another step forward in order to get the kids to "challenge themselves." For some kids, the workload remains manageable, and they have a relatively stress free education, but many get pushed way to hard. There's a STEM program at my school that makes kids take like 12 - 17 AP classes over the course of 4 years. That means they're taking 3 - 4 AP classes a year, every year, for their entire high school career. To some it's a challenge, but it can't be good to spend 3 hours doing homework every night on top of the other obligations that many teenagers have.
Kids should be pushed to take challenges, but they also need to be taught when too much is too much. There's been many kids in my time that have become miserable, because the stress of grades and schoolwork keep them up at night and constantly bother them. When something goes wrong, it becomes the end of the world to them and they have a breakdown.
I've seen so many sad kids throughout my career, and I hate it.