The education system
Things we should have learned/be learning in school
Education is integrated into our lives since we are young. Most of us go to school when we are 5 and leave the education system when we are in our 20s. Some start later and some leave earlier. But the point is most of us have been to school since we were probably 5 or 6 therefore education is a massive part of our lives.
During our educational years, we learn many subjects that are part of the system like English and Maths which are a must in the system. There are other subjects we learn that aren’t a must but we learn them anyway like Computing or Physical education (P. E). We liked some subjects and we hated others. That’s the system.
However, there are lessons that we never learn during our educational years that are essential to living a better and healthier life after we finish with the school system. These lessons are very important, however we are not taught about them in school. These are lessons I feel that we should have been taught during our times in the education system, I also believe that these are lesson that the younger generation should be taught so that they can thrive in life. These lessons include:
- The world of money
Yes, it is early to teach children in primary school about money however I believe that Teenagers from year 10 till university should be taught about how to manage their money, saving tips and general knowledge of how money works for example how the bank works, and as well as ways of making money. I believe that the education system is a traditional system that teaches young people to work hard and get a job and rely on that job for the rest of their lives. However, this is a bad thing to teach young people because the future is uncertain and the world is becoming digital so it is important to learn about other ways of making money but also ways of making that money earned useful for them in the future. For example, how to save money as a young person as well as investing for our future. Debt is another thing that school should have at least told us about, how to get support if you ever go into debt. Yes, a lot of things can be searched on Google however we shouldn’t have to be searching on Google for solutions to our problems that we should have learned/known in school because it is part of education.
2. Mental health
In my opinion, we are not told enough about e mental health and ways we can manage. The school system is very stressful and draining for our mental wellbeing which is why I believe that we should have lessons on managing our mental health. I mean we already have Physical Education to help manage our physical health so why can’t we have one for mental. As I’ve mentioned before the future is uncertain therefore we need to be able to go with the flow. Uncertain times like COVID-19 have taught us that we need to be able to adapt and be able to find ways of managing our health ,not just physically but mentally, as we never know when we might have to stay inside our houses for a long-time without the outside world. Ways of managing our mental health could be through mindfulness, gratitude journals, coloring, or gardening.
3. The system of the country you live in
What I mean by this is that every country has a system in how it maintains itself. Questions that could be asked under this could be: What happens after we finish the education? How does housing work? There are a few questions in mind that I don’t know how to word. But things like rent, benefits (UK), support and just knowledge that we would want to know even if we do not need it is good to be aware of how things work for example how are we able to get water in our taps every day. These kinds of stuff are things we should be aware of before we go to university because it is extra knowledge and it teaches us to be intelligent rather than just consuming information that may never be helpful n your life. Yes, it's good learning how atoms work and all that however unless you want to be a scientist or a career that involves atoms, you will never have a need for that information. So learning about how the country you live in functions in terms of housing, tax, and everything else that may be important to your life.
Education has come far since 1800, the system was based on consuming information, testing, and ranking people’s value based on grade. The system is in that same system so although we have moved from chalkboards to digital, the ranking system is still the same. So if the ranking system is going to be the same then we should have more real-life lessons that will not be graded and will be useful to our lives after we are on our own. This is my opinion.