10 things that are still not taught in schools, but in vain

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Mathematics, history and geography are no longer enough.

Psychologist Lyudmila Petranovskaya believes that adults - including schools - prepare children for life in the world of the day before yesterday. A similar opinion is shared by 40% of the surveyed Russians: the school system is ineffective. She does not give the child the knowledge and skills that are in demand. This means that while parents and children will have to fill these gaps on their own. Here are a few areas to look out for in order to keep up with life.

1. Self-organization

Manage time, set priorities, set goals and achieve them, deal with procrastination, build good habits, and change bad ones. If all this was taught in school, in adulthood we would probably work more efficiently, do more, get tired less, and generally live richer lives.

The good news is that modern parents have books to help explain the basics of time management to their children. And for schoolchildren who want to learn this on their own -. In addition, adults can adapt and show the child the principles of personal effectiveness that they themselves use.

2. Financial literacy

Only 17% of Russians consider themselves financially literate. For example, according to Children and Finance. The National Agency for Financial Research of the National Agency for Financial Research, less than half of the respondents manage the family budget, 40% keep their savings in cash and know almost nothing about banking services, charging commissions, and so on. The reason for this is the complete absence of financial literacy lessons in schools.

Parents who do not have the necessary knowledge and skills also have little to teach their child. 73% of respondents are not attracted to Children and finance. National Agency for Children's Financial Research to Planning Expenditures. Only a third of parents regularly discuss financial issues with their children. Although they are already spending money with might and main, and sometimes even earn themselves. This means that they should already know how to keep track of finances, plan a budget and make savings, what and how to save money, why we pay taxes and how to get a tax deduction, what banks are for and how to choose a banking product or service.

If parents cannot explain this on their own, you can enroll your child in financial literacy courses for children and adolescents - in some cities there are such. Or read a book about financial management with your child.

3. Sexual literacy

Most Russians believe that children need sexuality education. True, only 30% trust the school in this matter. And 61% are sure that, in the main, one should talk with a child not about contraception, respect for a partner, safety, comfort and pleasure, but about morality.

There are still no sex education lessons in Russian schools (and in vain, because they just could have reduced the risk of early onset of sexual activity), and serious wars are unfolding around this topic with the participation of parents, teachers, clergy and politicians. Meanwhile, in 2018, Russia topped the list of countries in terms of the number of new HIV infections. In 2019, the number of infected people exceeded 1 million, and the sexual transmission of the virus remains dominant. In addition, 20 out of 1,000 girls become mothers before they come of age, which is not surprising: even some adults use interrupted intercourse as a method of contraception.

Without adequate sexuality education, children will learn from unreliable sources, such as peers or from pornography, which has little to do with sex between living people. Studies say that watching porn provokes violence against women (from 37 to 80% of these videos contain scenes of violence) and creates unrealistic ideas about the human body in general and about sexual relations in particular.

The average age at the onset of sexual activity in Russia is 16-17, so the sooner adults start talking with children about sex, the higher the chances of protecting them from problems: STIs, early pregnancy, violence.

4. Harmonious relationships

For some time now, Russian schools have been planning to introduce family life lessons. A priest and nun wrote a textbook on this subject. The authors rely on Orthodox ideology, and not on the opinion of psychologists, sexologists, sociologists and doctors.

They don't talk about how to build harmonious and equal relations with a partner, respect each other, share household responsibilities, and solve problems in schools. About what to do when bullying or non-reciprocal love, too. However, as well as about friendship, interaction between parents and teachers, conducting a discussion and defending one's position. It's a pity: such lessons would help to avoid many problems and worries.

5. Taking care of yourself

In 2018, 800 teenagers committed suicide in Russia. Before that, our country was in the first place in terms of the number of suicides among young people for some time. Around the world, depression is one of the leading causes of morbidity and disability among minors. At the same time, adolescent mental problems are often ignored, and complaints are not taken seriously, attributing them to age.

There are no lessons about mental health at school either. No one teaches how to live negative emotions and talk about them, cope with stress and difficulties of adolescence, splash out their feelings so as not to injure themselves or others.

Children not only do not receive help from adults, but do not even understand what is happening to them and how it is "treated".

Caring for our own mental health and well-being in general is not typical of our culture. But parents who are not indifferent to this topic should often communicate with their children about their feelings. And if the child still has difficulties or questions, do not be afraid to take him to a specialist.

6. Housework

Labor lessons in Russian schools are still gender-specific. Girls bake cookies and sew aprons, and boys make stools, burn wood, and eat cookies baked by girls. The same trend persists outside of school: a girl may not be accepted into an animation class and sent to do needlework.

But such a division, firstly, supports harmful gender stereotypes, and secondly, it is simply meaningless. Any person, regardless of gender, would do well to learn how to work around the house: cook, clean, nail shelves, glue wallpaper.

7. Cybersecurity

People are still incredibly naive: they do not know the rules for handling bank cards, trust dubious sellers of goods and services, and even come across very bearded divorces like a "free" cosmetic procedure. Children and adolescents who have at least some pocket money can also be victims of scammers. For example, buy a non-existent thing or lose money on bets.

Therefore, it would be nice to tell your child about the schemes that criminals use, how not to fall for their tricks, how to handle bank cards, and so on.

In addition, it is very important to convey to children that personal data must be kept secret, passwords for various accounts must be complex, and strangers who are trying to communicate with you on the Internet should be treated with suspicion.

8. Ability to learn

According to experts' forecasts, people born after 2010 will have to learn all the time and change up to five types of activities in their lives. To deal effectively with this, cramming, which is the main emphasis in schools, will not be enough.

You need to be able to choose educational materials and check the reliability of information sources, set goals, plan, distribute the load, evaluate your own knowledge, and look for opportunities for their application. Take the first steps in this direction, for example, the popular Coursera "Learn to Learn" from the University of California. The course is free, there are Russian subtitles.

9. Programming

By 2030, more than 800 million people worldwide may be unemployed. These are mainly people engaged in manual labor, drivers, cashiers, administrative staff. But many new professions will appear. And most of them will be related to engineering and development in one way or another. In addition, programming skills are useful not only for a technical specialist, but also for the humanities: for processing and analyzing large amounts of data or automating routine tasks.

They plan to introduce programming and robotics lessons in schools, but while they are not there, you can enroll your child in full-time or distance learning courses or buy him, written in an interesting and accessible language.

10. Marketing, business, self-promotion

At the beginning of 2019, 387 underage individual entrepreneurs were registered in Russia. Teenagers are interested in business, and sometimes even succeed in it, blogging and uploading their creativity to the Internet. So it’s very useful for them to know how to draw up a business plan, think over an advertising strategy, form a personal brand, or set up targeted advertising.

And of course, for an adult, into whom sooner or later a schoolboy will become, the skills of doing business and self-promotion will also be very useful. Only you will have to learn this on your own - in courses, from books and blogs of marketers and businessmen.