Why aren’t life skills taught at school?

Think of the time you left school. Did you feel prepared to face the world? Did you know how to write a CV? Open a bank account? Rent an apartment or apply for a credit card?  There is a high chance you had to figure this information out on your own through trial and error or even by asking family and friends. Chances are school never taught you these “life skills”
. What are schools teaching then? Apparently they are teaching the same old subjects. It seems we’re pushing children through the same curriculum our grandparents went through. The question does not only lie on whether this curriculum is outdated but on the practically and utility it presents in the 21^st century. Is the material being taught put to use in the “real world”? If no, they why do we learn it? Are schools lazy that they refuse to change to what seems to have been “working” so far? When I finished school, the math I had learned seemed to be completely unrelated to the math I was intended to use in my daily living. Did I know how to write a good CV? Not really. However, I did know how to write a critical essay on Lord of the flies.

We cannot really blame it on the teachers. There are good teachers and there are bad teachers but unfortunately, they seem to all be stuck in a bad system. Hence, why many teachers leave the profession because the teaching methodology , assessment criteria, and overall curriculum does not fulfill the expectations they had of changing the world when they commenced teaching. Some teachers aim to teach life skills or incorporate it into a fun lesson and they are promptly reminded that it isn’t part of the curriculum. I was one of those teachers. My students were hungry and eager to learn life skills. They asked me to teach them. They said the curriculum was boring. This made sense. They want to learn about the world that they see and experience every day. They don’t experience the world of “Pi=3.14” every day so of course they aren’t thrilled to learn about it. They wanted to learn how to save money, how to invest etc. Can we really blame them? This is a generation of students who witnessed their parents forfeit their mortgage, lose their jobs and die without life insurance. Many students ask how to get rich “fast”. While there isn’t a magical formula, it would have been nice to learn about compound interest in elementary school to put away your allowance so that by the time you retired you had your own personal fund.  How about “learning to learn”. Learning true “learning skills” that you can apply to learn a new language, study for an exam or teach yourself something of true importance. While teaching high school, I realised many of the students didn’t’ have a clue how to study or learn. They had no learning skills. They came from the same system I came from. Memorize, repeat and vomit. Application and connections to the real world were scarce. The 21st-century curriculum seems to offer some hope although we do not yet quite know to what extent. They claim to focus on collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication. However, we are unaware of its limitations and its benefits at the moment. As they same only time will tell, however, maybe by then it will be too late and students will have to learn on their own.

To download a cool PDF poster on the 4C’s click here