• Should certain practical skills be taught at schools?
    46 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Rubs10;33016974]You could turn it into a just add water recipe. No need for a microwave or refrigerator.[/QUOTE]No you can't actually. This is not college cooking but real cooking.
[QUOTE=Errorproxy;33020638]Absolutely not. Practical skills are useless in real life.[/QUOTE] Apart from when something happens like your chair legs snap off and you don't have any idea of how to fix it.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;33021480]Apart from when something happens like your chair legs snap off and you don't have any idea of how to fix it.[/QUOTE] Buy a new chair, problem solved. (hurr hurr) One of the most usefull things I was taught in school was how to wire a plug, Now I can buy appliences and gadgets in my travels and still use them at home. Would take less than 1 lesson to work that in, and I could argue that this is far more useful than the time I wasted being forced to learn german.
I think it's more useful to teach it to students who are 15 and 16 than to 13 and under, because in my experience, I attributed no value to cooking as a 12 year old and it wasn't until I was 17 or 18 that I really wished I'd learned how to cook.
My old school used to have mandatory woodwork/metalwork, cooking and textiles for the first 3 years of secondary school. Except instead of doing them all at the same time, you did a different one every term so it didn't take up time which could be used for teaching more academic subjects. After the 3 years they became optional since that is when you would start your GCSEs and choose what subjects you want to do. [editline]29th October 2011[/editline] Also I definitely think they should be taught. It may not seem useful at the time, but knowing how to do all the stuff it teaches you can become very helpful now and again in later life.
[QUOTE=Jabberwocky;33018443]What about a compulsory philosophy class?[/QUOTE] Over here, we already have them, and it's a huge failure. And even then, that's not what I meant, I meant puzzles. Philosophy just trains the mind to do logical thought.
We were taught cooking at Secondary school in the UK but I wish we could get the option to take it at our last school years because I don't remember shit from what they taught us
[QUOTE=MountainWatcher;33022893]Over here, we already have them, and it's a huge failure. And even then, that's not what I meant, I meant puzzles. Philosophy just trains the mind to do logical thought.[/QUOTE]I think we were taught different philosophies. In our class it taught about being deep and dreamy and thinking outside the box, not thinking logically.
I would have LOVED to study woodworking in school, but it was not available. Cooking is a nice thing to teach, definitely. But I think all of these skills should be optional to take as classes.
I guess it would be nice learning how to fix a hole in my pants or something, I always get holes in my pants.
We had to do a practical subject for GCSE where I went, and ended up being the only subject I failed.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;33021480]Apart from when something happens like your chair legs snap off and you don't have any idea of how to fix it.[/QUOTE] Yes, every year millions of men, women, and children suffer from broken chair legs. This needs to be solved. I suggest we implement a chair leg snapped fixing class into our schools.
people these days rely on each other too much, they should be more self-sufficient
I agree that schools should offer basic woodworking and engineering classes that cover basic stuff like measuring and cutting 2x4s for interior walls and electrical work. But, the problem with that is that such classes inevitably become dumping grounds for poor kids that are seen as never going to be successful. They are left to learn trades that condemn them to lifelong poverty while the attention and resources are diverted to "worthwhile" students.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;33035030]I agree that schools should offer basic woodworking and engineering classes that cover basic stuff like measuring and cutting 2x4s for interior walls and electrical work. But, the problem with that is that such classes inevitably become dumping grounds for poor kids that are seen as never going to be successful. They are left to learn trades that condemn them to lifelong poverty while the attention and resources are diverted to "worthwhile" students.[/QUOTE] carpentry and such can actually provide a decent living if you get the right job, the skills are nowhere near useless economically.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;33035030]They are left to learn trades that condemn them to lifelong poverty while the attention and resources are diverted to "worthwhile" students.[/QUOTE] I don't know about the United States, but trades pay really well in Australia.
[QUOTE=Mon;33035462]carpentry and such can actually provide a decent living if you get the right job, the skills are nowhere near useless economically.[/QUOTE] My friend has gone into carpentry and woodworking for a career. He said that now since most people try getting into academic subjects there are hardly any carpenters or plumbers or the such left, and with heavy demand by people who have no idea how to fix anything they are quite wealthy. My dad once called a plumber to fix a problem we had, but the plumber later said he had to cancel it because the plumber had too many appointments to handle. It's a very profitable enterprise.
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