Over at Levy's Mom, Levy mentioned the following:
I do, however, believe that all high school students should have to learn how to use [a gun] in order to graduate.
That's interesting. I've always felt that high school students should be required to know how to swim in order to graduate. Maybe we could combine our two ideas and come up with a new summer Olympic sport that biathletes can compete in during the warmer months. Anyway, I'm digressing. The point of this post is to ask you to fill in the blank (by posting a comment):
In order to graduate, high school students should be required to know how to ___________.
My wife took what is in my opinion the easy way out and said, "read and write". I guess that's OK, but that's not exactly the kind of thing I had in mind. I'm asking you to think of something that usually isn't typically included in a school curriculum, but you would like to be. It should be something that could come in handy in more than a somewhat bizarre set of circumstances.
What do you think?
5 comments:
This is an easy one for me. It's something that has occurred to me for years. In order to graduate, high school students should be required to know how to manage their money. Students should be taught how to manage a personal budget and should be taught such things as compound interest -- both in the context of saving and borrowing -- saving, investing, risk versus reward, and examples of "good" and "bad" debt. Perhaps each student would be given a set of life circumstances (for example, you have a job that pays $X per month, your rent is $Y per month, you have two kids, you spend $Z per month on groceries, etc.) and would be required to manage their fake budget and report on it regularly.
I'm disturbed by the large number of people who don't manage their money properly, and I think one reason for that is they were never taught how to manage their money.
JES beat me to it on the basic money management point, and I agree wholeheartedly. Its an absolutely critical life skill, and one that is seriously lacking in our education system up here in Canada.
So, just to be different, how about a requirement for completion of a civics course? Explain democracy, the significance of voting, that engagement in the political process and educating oneself on the issues, and forming an independent opinion, are necessary facets of a successful and thriving democracy.
Some might argue that young people grow out of their apathy, but with voter turnout steadily declining (at least here in Canada), I think the issue might be more serious than we currently realize.
Ha, grad school couldn't hurt ;-) My life plans have actually entirely changed over the course of the last few day's. I'm now taking an extra quarter to graduate, using the scholar ship and getting some type of certification that is supposed to make me extremely marketable this fall through OSU.
I think JES and Anshu are 100% on. I wholeheartedly second anyone who believes that high school graduates should have to pass exams showing they understand the basic principles of economics and personal finance.
I would also encourage, along the lines of Anshu's comments, more critical thinking when it comes to dealing with information and communication, no matter what the medium. Anshu mentioned "educating oneself on the issues, and forming an independent opinion" as being cornerstones; to do that, one has to sharpen one's general thinking skills (reading, skimming, discerning the point, drawing conclusions, understanding statistics). I get the idea a significant number of folks could benefit from understanding how mass media work, from how to read a serious newspaper (or from reading one at all), from how to conduct research (find and properly quote sources, avoid plagerism), from even realizing what typical sources exist (press release versus op-ed article versus backgrounder versus...) and what information they typically deliver, and from understanding some psychology about the power of visual images. Maybe this would be a "media awareness" course or something.
I would also require high school graduates to learn a foreign language. Everyone in Germany has to learn English (minimally at a basic level), not just college-bound kids. If they can do it, so can others.
There are two aspects: Communication at a basic level in a language that's not your native one, and developing an awareness of, and appreciation for, how others on this planet think, live, and work. I think everyone could benefit from this regardless of what path they take in life.
How about knowing basic First Aid and resuscitation techniques?
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