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The problem occurs when the parents aren't smart enough to teach their kids how to do taxes and whatnot.

Should we resign those kids to their fate because they were dealt a hand which involves stupid parents?

Exactly. If there's anything I've learned from school, it's how to learn on my own and that not everything can be learned in class.

It's also frustrating to hear people gripe about this shit when it's the same people who I know wouldn't have paid any attention in class anyway!

So 'don't bother even offering real-world, helpful information to students, and if the parent is a piece of shit, well little Timmy can get fucked'?

How exactly does that help anyone?

I fucking hated school both because I was held back while everyone else reached a decent level, and also it didn't actually teach me anything fucking useful, especially during high school. I don't need to know about science or mathematics beyond a middle-school level, I needed to be fucking prepared for this shithole that adults called 'the real world'. Now I can code in a bunch of different languages, and I know computer hardware and modern software/OSs in and out, but fuck me for bringing up the fact that nobody helped me with resumes or job interviews or how to do literally anything beyond buying food from the snack bar. I would have appreciated the opportunity, but nah fuck me, here is woodworking.

American here and my comment speaks only about America. I don't have the faintest knowledge of the school system in other places.

My high school DID have a mandatory class for Juniors, all the way back in the mid 2000s, that taught all this stuff. How to properly write resumes and cover letters, balancing your checkbook / managing your finances, doing your taxes, how to properly read a contract and always reading the fine print and how you can nullify or change certain parts of the contract and have the other party agree on it, all the important adult stuff. I don't even remember the name of the class because I was too busy thinking about getting stoned after school with my friends, but I do remember it being interesting enough to remember what they were teaching. We also had a mandatory Government class that taught about the branches and how they all work, all the basics, what lobbying actually is and how you can do it, etc.

The truth is, when you offer this information to moody overworked teenagers -- 80% is taught already -- there is almost nothing they give less of a fuck about at the time, save for maybe the nerdy A+ across the board overachiever kids. The ones that partially cared remember it as well as they do binomial fractions. Basically, that it exists. Maybe. It's only later on when they now have to do the research themselves and it's not hand-curated for them that they bitch why didn't school teach me the important things?!

They did. You were busy not listening or caring.

Anyone that wants to challenge me on this, don't just downvote me. Name your high school and this week I'll pose as a reporter from a small paper calling to ask about the "important life skills kids need to know after high school" - the aforementioned topics, and ask if they have classes that cover it and how long they've had the class, and also whether they're elective or mandatory. I'll give you the name of the person(s) I spoke to, and proof that the call took place and then you can call for yourself to verify.

The point of school is to give you a large amount of background knowledge that you can later recall the name of and look up yourself even if you don't remember exactly what they taught you. AND to train you as a good worker in the capitalistic system, yes, but I'm not arguing that they don't -- we do live in a capitalistic system, after all. But they also teach you about all the other types of economic systems.

And you wonder why some of your teachers aren't the kindest people to everyone with calm demeanors, even though they purposely chose -- maybe decades ago -- that they wanted to help kids learn.

This is all retrospective from someone in his 30s of course. I hated school too and said all the same things. I'm just trying to drop some knowledge for those of you that are young enough that this might apply. Pay attention to the material, and check your electives. I'm positive some American schools don't teach any of this, particularly in poorer areas, but if you go to a school that isn't rated horribly, they probably have a class about this stuff for you, if you want it.

My school taught us how to create a resumé and apply for jobs. They also taught us how our government works, what political parties are associate with what end of the spectrum, and how to budget. This was compulsory education. This was 20+ years ago.

My parents didn't fill in the gaps. Yeah, the system needs to account for lazy parents. Kids are not really owned by their parents, by the way.

I agree and disagree. I feel if a school - especially a publicly funded school - has any responsibility to teach children anything, it should be how to navigate society's requirements. I would much rather have been taught basic finance and taxation and career planning and political systems and stuff than the same exact span of World War 2 history 4+ years in a row (this was my high school). Parents should absolutely have a responsibility in teaching their children too, yes, but that's assuming ideal parents. In reality, today's parents are struggling too much (in part due to never having been taught how to navigate society properly) to impart actual beneficial lessons to their children on these topics, then our schools are neglecting to fill in the gaps before ejecting the kids into adult life with demands and expectations that were never communicated to them.

So how do we decide which stuff should be formal education and which stuff is the parents responsibility?

Also there are a lot of factors that play into whether a student pays attention in class or not.

In my 12 years of school, you're telling me there was no time at all to go over stuff like this? I think it's totally doable.