What Schools Should Teach

There are so many things that school taught me. Apart from the academic stuff like reading writing drawing and counting and the sciences, it also taught me about:

- friendship and camaraderie

- respecting other people

- hard work and results

- being myself and working with others

- speaking up (and keeping quiet) > there are suitable times for each!

- caring for others (and in some cases laughing with them for silliness)

- social skills

- the fascinating world of geography (and it can be as fascinating without asking me to do multiple copies of maps!!!!)

and a lot of other developmental things, which I fully treasure.

There were some bullies, and I hope they have learnt their lesson. 

I have forgiven some of them, while some I will remember forever (for their meanness, to spur me on).

Today I watched a documentary about a pilot project to teach children about mental health. I thought about what I have read before on teaching children about money management, to help them avoid financial pitfalls and becoming bankrupts at a young age.

 

Here's what I think what schools should teach, apart from the required academic subjects:

- financial management & investment (but with a better title, and with much better teaching content than current commerce and accounting subjects which are blech!)

- career discernment/ career exploration 

- critical thinking & problem-solving; decision-making

- civic-mindedness/ civic duty

- social work/ projects/ volunteerism

- mental health awareness

- kenegaraan (nationalism) > this can probably be combined with civic-mindedness

- building, planting and fixing things > well there is RBT, but the way it is taught is very theoretical

- communication skills/ public speaking/ debating

- coding/ logical thinking > can also be coupled with thinking skills?

- interpersonal skills > matched with communication skills perhaps?

- photography and art appreciation  

 

Must the teachers do everything on top of their teaching hours and administrative jobs? I think no, this is where engagement with industry is useful. The counsellors can be trained to take up these electives, or these can be incorporated into clubs & society activities, or corporations can 'return to schools' to talk about what they do. I know some kids appear disinterested in school, but with these options they will hopefully find something that pique their interest. Every child is special and they will be someone if they're given a chance and some direction.

My ideal university is one that kids can choose what they want to learn. At the end of it, they should be allowed to go into any profession. It probably would be a botched university, if there are no core modules (how would they become engineers or architects or doctors or lawyers?). Well, details haven't been fully ironed out yet. It could well be a "business" or social science university, for all I know 🙈