Response to: What today's kids don't know, who's to blame, and how to fix it

This article opens with the writer telling the mistakes she's made as a mother. She realized that she never got around to teaching her kids basic life skills, such as how to mail a letter. Just as she feels for her daughter, that goes to show the disconnect between what school teaches us and the skills we need for the rest of our lives. Besides specialized classes, where in all of our years of school do we learn how to change a car tire? Balance a checkbook? Good thing I have the Pythagorean theorem memorized, though.


The article includes how American teenagers are less informed about worldly financial matters as opposed to those of other countries. As a country, I think our school systems should care a little less about learning how to bubble in circles and most accurately guess on problems we don’t know, and spend more time learning information we can easily utilize. Where in this nations’ obsession with getting ready for college and test-prep does it account for those students who simply don’t perform well on [standardized] tests?


At least things are getting better. The article says how Massachusetts Institute of Technology now teaches a course on social skills, which is something so expected and important to navigating everyday life. Overall, though the education schools provide currently is good, it’s repetitive and dull at times. Learning is great, so why not make it more fun and absolutely useful?