I can just hear it now, though. In a few years, the same people lamenting the loss of values in our culture will be saying schools need to get “back to basics” and stop teaching all these fluff courses on how to write checks.
I’d like to add child development and parenting skills to the list. A lot of people think parenting and raising children will just come naturally, but that ain’t so. And just because your parents raised YOU without killing you doesn’t mean knowledge wouldn’t improve the process in the next generation.
Not everyone will become a parent, but even childless people will come into contact with children, and will pay into schools and other programs that benefit children. All could benefit from knowing more about how kids turn into humans.
But they do teach how to balance a check book in school. It’s called arithmetic.
I think you mean why one should do this. Maybe it’s because my folks were an accountant and a bookkeeper, but I can’t remember not knowing why it was a good idea to keep an eye on one’s money and to never go into debt unless it was strictly necessary. Others’ experience may be different.
As for politeness, civility, and all that, High School is too late; it begins at home, well before Kindergarten.
Let’s face it. Some things folks should learn at home, they don’t. Things like:
Nobody deserves to be beaten.
How to negotiate.
How to handle disagreement without fists, guns, or lawyers.
How to use credit without drowning.
Marriage as a long term project.
Most of these individual topics don’t need a whole course.
Reading maps? I can’t remember not being able to. What’s so hard about it that it actually needs to be taught in school?
I learned how to balance my checkbook when I got my first checking account. Sounds impossible, I know, but I followed the instructions on the back of statement! (I’ve forgotten if I was still in college at the time or if it was later.)
Most credit problems can be avoided entirely in a few sentences: debt’s a bad thing unless absolutely necessary. Interest rates can kill you. So can a bad credit score. Avoid buying something until you have the cash (a house being the only exception). If you use a credit card, keep track of what you spend and don’t spend more than you can afford to pay off in full at the end of the month. Wanting something is not the same as needing something.
Do you have a specific example of something like that which you’ve based that statement on? You’re not blaming these people you speak of for the need for these courses, are you? Don’t you wonder why we have to give specific courses for these basic things in the first place?
It doesn’t mean that “knowledge” would improve the process, either. From some of the results I see, there’s doubt. We could fix one thing but screw up something else even worse. Maybe we should check to see if that “knowledge” actually works on a large scale before recommending it to everyone.