- Applied Finance Math, or How to commit Checkbook fraud, pick a lock, climb a fence, disable a security camera
- Firearms 1: Basic First Aid for Gunshot Victims (prerequisite course for-)
- Firearms 2: Local & State government (what district you live in, who represents it, and what their voting record was since the last election, where they live, who sponsors them, what security they have, what upcoming public engagements they have)
- Firearms 3: National government (who your senators and representative are, etc.)
- Permaculture, or How to grow your own food
- Sex Education: Mandatory sex at 17, those who are still virgins are paired off with other random virgins or fail to graduate.
Drew Kit. I’m not sure just what your agenda is here, but it’s out of place in this thread.
samclem Moderating. Just a note, not a warning.
Honestly, I don’t even know what balancing a checkbook is, exactly. Something about keeping track of how much money you are supposed to have at any moment? Is this something that requires specialized skill? (Money I have now plus or minus changes in money = money I have after the change. This requires a class?)
I’ll go with Hellestal’s suggestion of linguistics; at least, to the extent of replacing the misinformation in English classes which is currently its closest correspondent. Not because you necessarily need to know this to survive, but, hell, there is very little in middle/high school which you need to know to survive, and very little which you need to know in survive which you learn from middle/high school. I have higher aspirations.
I have been taught mostly everything listed in high school, except cooking. These classes were all required.
My 9th grade history had civics and geography.
One of my health classes had first aid and CPR certification.
Half of my 12th grade Econ class was on personal finance. It covered savings and checking accounts, loans, investing, insurance, and much more.
Ok, hold the thread for a second. Since most everyone is suggesting classes that were already taught or at least offered to many posters here, can someone familar with the contemporary US (or other country) school system please post a list of what is taught? Please don’t just say “kids are taught how to pass standardized tests.” That is not what I am asking. What subjects are covered?
I continue to believe that most of the things suggested are taught, but the vast majority of students don’t retain the knowledge, due to low intelligence, lack of interest, laziness, etc. A better sex-ed class isn’t going to help little johnny if he doesn’t give a shit about it in the first place.
The US educational system is managed on a state by state basis. There’s no way to answer this question for the whole US.
That said, most of the things listed in this thread are taught in some way. Perhaps not to some poster’s satisfaction, but they are taught. For example, the people who say geography and basic cooking skills aren’t taught in this country are either retarded mental midgets themselves or they’re just repeating what they heard somewhere else. Both are required as part of a standard high school curriculum in NY state. While I can’t claim they’re taught everywhere, I doubt NYS is some kind of outlier in teaching these subjects.
And the idea that “balancing a checkbook” is some vital skill is a holdover from a time when banks used to fuck up the amount of money they said you had because everything was done manually. A computerized banking system with nearly real-time debiting and crediting doesn’t need to be “balanced.”
Ding, ding, ding! WINNAH! Requirement?
How about those classes for anyone who wants to purchase a firearm? That I can get behind.
When I was going to high school, cooking was only taught in the Home Ec classes in Texas and Missouri, not in any other classes. Home Ec was an elective, which meant that a student was not required to take it to graduate.
When my daughter was going to high school in Texas, again, no cooking classes except for Home Ec, which was an elective. As it happens, I cook, and I taught her to cook, plus she LIKES to cook, so she watches cooking shows and reads the cooking articles and recipes in the newspaper. She learned about nutrition in Health class…but that class didn’t teach about cooking, just about choosing foods. That’s two different subjects! Just because someone knows that she needs lean protein, fiber, veggies, a little fat, and some whole grains for dinner doesn’t mean that she knows how to combine and process them into something tasty.
Home Ec was an elective when I was in school (graduated 1992) and it’s not even offered in my son’s school (Chicago Public).
Apologies then, I was trying to imply too much while sticking with the same format as the OP while failing to be funny. I’ll try to explain briefly but I won’t post again on this thread.
-
Applied Finance Math
Very few kids I know are likely to ever balance a cheque book as most of them won’t ever use a cheque book. Even the ones that graduate from University are so indebted will be lucky to clear their debts or balance any account until they are no longer kids. Realistically, some of these people will turn to crime and have to learn skills like I suggested anyway. -
Firearms 1: Basic First Aid for Gunshot Victims (prerequisite course for-)
It is extremely odd to someone who lives in a society where guns are controlled to read proposals for firearm lessons in school. The frequency of school shootings in the US would suggest learning how to survive a gunshot should be of primary importance. For example, if I came to the US again I would seriously consider buying some QuickClot. If my child was to learn about guns, I’d rather be the one to take them to a club to learn this, and I wouldn’t be comfortable with them attending a school equipped with firearms. -
Firearms 2: Local & State government (what district you live in, who represents it, and what their voting record was since the last election, where they live, who sponsors them, what security they have, what upcoming public engagements they have)
-
Firearms 3: National government (who your senators and representative are, etc.)
I realise however that the US constitution gives you the right to bear arms to overthrow your government should you wish. To easily overthrow your government it helps if you know where they live. I was being flippant mixing in the OP political course with their Firearms courses. Whats the point of having a right if you are never going to use it? Is is even credible that the people of the United States could still overthrow it’s government in an armed revolt given the technological superiority of the US military?
-
Permaculture, or How to grow your own food
This was a serious suggestion. Not enough people know how to grow there own food sustainably which could be disasterus since current agriculture is heavily dependent on oil. Kids who grow keep growing as adults. -
Sex Education: Mandatory sex at 17, those who are still virgins are paired off with other random virgins or fail to graduate.
This is not so serious since it’s based on advice from Chef in the cartoon South Park, that children shouldn’t have sex until they are 17 and shouldn’t not have sex once they were 17. In school, you don’t pass a music exam unless you can play or sing something. You don’t pass an art exam just by knowing art history.
It’s slightly serious too. My best friend when I was 17 remained a virgin until he was 29. I asked him once what he would regret most on his deathbed, and he said not having sex more when he was younger. Losing your virginity with a peer in a normal, safe, everyday context might’ve saved my friend 12 years of frustration.
Robert Heinlein wrote “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.”
So far I can only change a diaper, plan an invasion, write a sonnet, build a wall, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer and cook a tasty meal, and I’m not very good at most of those.
I’d like to see some sort of Life Skills class required, but I’d also like to see kids able to test out of a lot of classes. I was put in Home Ec for two semesters, got decent grades in it…and didn’t learn a damned thing, because my cooking and sewing skills were already far above the very basic skills that were taught. On the other hand, the boys in my age group never learned to boil water or sew on a button. I’d like to see some sort of program where a student can get credit for demonstrating that s/he can solve a math problem, or can produce an edible meal from scratch, or otherwise demonstrate knowledge of whatever the course may claim to teach. Some knowledge or skills can’t be tested out of, of course, but a lot of them could be.
Students who need to be socialized would have to go to socialization classes until they are ready to co-operate with the teacher. And if this means that we have socialization classes for late teens, then so be it.
- Took Home Ec. Learned how to make basic foods and made a horrible pair of pants. Oh, and it was required of both genders. While the girls took Home Ec, guys took Industrial Arts, and when the girls took Industrial Arts, boys took Home Ec.
- Took Sex Ed. Teacher had been a teen parent, gave excellent birth control advice.
- Grade 7 had a mandatory First Aid workshop over 2 days.
- Drivers Ed. All students of the correct age were automatically signed up. I guess you could choose not to do it, but it was the easiest way. Give up some lunch hours for the public service your parents’ education tax dollars went to.
- Critical thinking. I like to think it was well implemented in the general curriculum. Each subject asked critical thinking questions about the material.
- Geography. Could have used more international material, but you got a vague idea.
The problem with the maths is that us poor schmucks that wanted to go on to university were required to keep on going forever. Because Human Resources requires Calculus. Uh huh.
I could get behind both, CLEB testing at the HS level would have gotten me out of a lot of stupid classes that I basically sat there and endeavored to stay awake through =\
I took home yeccch in 9th grade, the age 12. I could make a souffle that did not fall when I was 8. I could already sew more than basic clothing and was learning to do seriously fancy embellishment and lacemaking by 10, and I knew how to make and keep to a budget as my parents had already taught me by giving me an allowance and making me save for and buy what I wanted beyond the basic needs. I wanted to take either leather shop or auto shop but was refused because I was a girl and girls took home ec and typing, end of any discussion.:rolleyes:
I wanted to take Wood Shop, but the first high school counselor absolutely refused, saying that girls took Home Ec and Typing. She tried to get me to agree to this by telling me that I could skip the second year of science, as girls were allowed to substitute Home Ec for that year. However, science was my favorite class! And then I had to take that second year of science anyway, when I moved to another state. I still resent having to have spent that full year on an elective that didn’t teach me anything, and that I could have spent on a more interesting subject.
I AM glad that I learned how to touch type, though. It was so much easier to play Zork by touchtyping.
Can you make me a pirate outfit? 
Scrap phy-ed. Make basketballs, jump ropes, weights, etc. available to the students; they will use them if given the time to do so. You don’t have to mandate it. (You will have to supervise it to some extent, but that’s another issue.)
No art / music class should be a requirement, but it would be nice if there were several options as electives.
Arithmetic, algebra, statistics, basic calculus required. Other maths available as electives. (Obviously these wouldn’t all be required at one time. I imagine grade school dealing primarily with arithmetic and basic algebra, with some simple statistics. Middle school and junior high dealing with more advanced algebra and mid-level statistics. High school dealing with basic calculus and more advanced statistics. That’s the general idea, anyway.)
Scrap “spelling” classes, if they still have them. Spelling is a skill you can pick up along with learning to write, which students should learn in “English” / composition classes. I’d say they should scrap keyboarding classes as well, but I have to assume these are already gone. Do any young people actually need to be taught how to type?
Also, scrap school sports teams / swimming pools / stadiums entirely. Waste of money.
Add the following as requirements:
Basic Philosophy & Ideas
Covers the “Big Ideas” throughout history and in the present day. Ethics, epistemology, ontology, etc. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It’s not just some egg-head subject. These are the ideas that wars are fought over. These are the ideas that shaped the world and will continue to do so.
Critical Thinking
Includes as textbooks: “How to Lie With Statistics” and “The Demon-Haunted World”. Includes formal and informal logical fallacies. Includes basic formal logic.
Basic Law
Difference between criminal / civil law. Your basic legal rights. Your basic legal responsibilities. How laws are made, interpreted, enforced. Federal law vs State law vs local ordinances. A bit about legal codes in other countries and through the ages for contrast and comparison. The Constitution, what it says, what it doesn’t.
Also, “Dealing With the Elderly”. Includes topics such as what a checkbook is, and why it leads to slow checkout lanes in the supermarket. 
Aside perhaps from statistics taking the place of geometry, I can’t see how this differs from the current norms of math education; that pretty much describes the K-12 experience of most people I know.
When I was in high school, only the girls got “Home Economics”, which was cooking, sewing, and for all I know, actual home economics: banking and how to manage a household. I’m not sure, because as a boy I wasn’t allowed to take it. This struck me then and now as stupid. Don’t guys (i. e., bachelors) need to know something about cooking, sewing, or managing a household?
Yeah, that’s pretty much it, except I don’t know if any amount of calc is required in most high schools. I added the math bits largely because others were asking for less math.
Typing, though that should be taught in elementary or middle school, not high school. Typing quickly is a skill that everybody can use these days. I think it might even be worth it to teach typing instead of cursive writing.
Personal finance. I think we should eliminate sewing in middle school home economics and replace it with personal finance, since clothes can be had so cheap that most people don’t need to make or mend their own clothes any more.
Cooking, especially cooking for one person. A sizable percentage of Americans live by themselves at some point in their lives. (Yes, cooking a recipe designed to serve four and saving some as leftovers works for some people, but some of us just find ourselves eating too much when we do that) This could be done in middle school, since the basic math required is just fractions.
Cooking shouldn’t just be about cooking snack foods, as my eighth grade home ec cooking class was. It should also be about planning meals. I’m trying to do more meal planning, since people who plan meals save money on food and tend to eat more vegetables than people who don’t. I know we tend to eat only frozen vegetables when nobody plans our meals in advance.
Basic home repairs. This could replace wood or metal shop, which I took in middle school.
That’s a different issue. You can have a worthless teacher in any subject. My tenth grade modern European history teacher also taught psychology at a community college, and clearly thought of that as her “real” job. She would give us busywork to do in class so she could grade papers for her community college class instead of teaching us. That doesn’t say anything about whether modern European history is or isn’t worth teaching in schools. It just means that teacher was a dud.
I had a class called “Law and the Individual” about basics of law like contracts. Good idea, but in practice it was worthless, because the teacher was “really” the football coach. He didn’t want to put in a lot of extra time to teach my class. I’m not saying all football coaches are bad teachers, but this particular one was. I had him for 11th grade pre-1865 US history, too, and that class was also worthless.