10 Things They Need To Teach In Highschool
What are kids learning these days? Is it the same stuff we were learning back in highschool? Does that make much sense any more?
Certainly, the basics should always be taught, and there’ll be some things that barely change, but the pace at which things happen in today’s world technologically, politically and socially show us that highschool curriculums need to evolve as well.
Chris Brogan ponders this very question (interestingly enough through Twitter) and here’s my answer. This is important for all of us because we’re the ones changing the face of the planet. And we should do a better job equipping those that come after us in handling that change and benefiting from it.
- Entrepreneurship. Not every student will become an entrepreneur, but teaching entrepreneurship would be a great way to instill passion, creativity, critical thinking and interest in a lot of students. Plenty of students are disengaged in school because they’re dreaming of something bigger and better; teaching entrepreneurship can help challenge those interests.
- Journalism. It’s a safe bet that every kid out there will blog, or publish their ideas, news, insights, feedback, etc. in some form or other online. With that in mind, highschools should teach formal journalism to help students improve their structured writing. Journalism also covers areas of interviewing, communication, critical thinking, judgment, balanced reporting, ethics and more.
- Economics. I had to wait until university to take economics courses, unless you count basic accounting. Basic accounting is so boring it will put anyone off from caring about economics. Students should understand the fundamentals of macro and micro economics. Tie it easily with entrepreneurship: angel investing, venture capital, etc. Tie it easily with today’s realities: the stock market, dot com crash, and so on. This shouldn’t start with accounting, it should start with a greater understanding of how money is made and managed.
- Personal Finances & Investing. Having a world view of how money works is great, but at the end of the day it comes down to what’s in your pocket and what you do with it. Kids have a hard time looking long term into the future, but they need a better handle on managing their own money and understanding the basics of investing. Show kids how they can put a couple bucks per month into an RRSP at an early age and it’ll be worth millions when they retire and you’ll spark some interest.
- Ethics. This was suggested by Whitney Hoffman of LD Podcast and it’s a great idea. Some highschool classes will tackle issues around ethics, but I think kids would be very interested in getting to the meat of this wide ranging subject. Let them grapple with complex issues, debate, exchange ideas and push themselves to think beyond their cozy boxes. And ethics ties so easily with a host of other subjects: entrepreneurship, journalism, economics, etc.
- Technology & Social Media. Most highschool students will be familiar with MySpace, Facebook, blogging and so on, but why not get a class going on these very subjects and how they’re changing the world we live in? Maybe there aren’t any highschool teachers capable of handling this, which would be a shame. What many of us live and breathe daily is being picked up by younger generations haphazardly, and there’s some fun and advantage to that, but it should be put in context of greater world issues - security, privacy, technological advancement, globalization, entertainment…
- Personal Brand Development. Highschool students are going through an incredible time of self-discovery and understanding of how they want to fit into the world around them. Understanding the concepts of personal branding (and ancillary to that marketing, sales, networking, communication) would be an interesting way to help students understand the importance of how they get their message across, how they’re perceived, and what they can do to further develop themselves as individuals. There are many life lessons to be learned in the concepts of personal branding.
- Psychology. I don’t think we give highschool students enough credit. And that’s one of our biggest mistakes. Teaching elements of psychology - developmental (again, suggested by Whitney!), perceptual, cultural - would be an amazing eye opener for a lot of kids. Highschools often lament the lack of physical education they’re providing (resulting in fat, unhealthy kids) but we seem to completely ignore healthy minds.
- Politics & Conflict Resolution. There are some classes related to politics and world issues in highschool, but they’re lacking. Politics isn’t about the structure of a political system (How many seats are there in the Senate? Name every President or Prime Minister and the years they were in power.) Politics (love it or hate it) is a fundamental force in the world. Combined with teaching conflict resolution and mediation, we can raise kids with a bigger awareness of the world’s complexity, but with an eye to helping and fixing problems. Too many people (let alone highschool students) have an “It’s not my problem, it’s someone else’s problem” attitude. Um…
- Religion & Faith. Controversial for sure, but I’m not suggesting we teach kids one specific religion or faith. Teach all of them. Give kids an understanding of how other religions and faiths work, how they originated, how they differ. A few lightbulbs will go off in those classes and kids will realize that most faiths and religions are almost identical. You mean, we’re all kinda, like, the same?
I’d also love to see more pure technology training in highschool - programming classes and the such that don’t involve COBOL or other ancient languages. Isn’t there a way we could teach kids how to code in Ruby, or design websites and blogs using CSS?
There are plenty of big problems with our educational systems - often under-funded, under-appreciated, railed on, etc. But there’s also a clear lack of innovation in many places and a difficulty with locked-in, old school curriculums that don’t (or can’t?) adapt to the changing world fast enough.
Thanks for the mentions!
I think we also fail to teach kids “how” to learn- we tell them they need to study, to “work harder”, but never really tell them how to use their brain most efficiently. For example, we don’t teach kids about how short term and long term memory work, and how to best use that hardware we carry around in our heads. And this is a travesty, because it leads to so much wasted time- for everyone.
I’d be happy if so many music programs weren’t being cut, unfortunately it seems like schools are losing a lot of things instead of adding more.
Great post mate. I dislike the current education system because it basically teaches you how to pass exams and to regurgitate information but does very little to inspire, challenge and make young minds think.
I’ll second what whitney said — throughout school, I thought studying consisted of taking dictation in class and re-reading those notes over and over again.
And as Sarakastic indicated, with all these good programs being cut, just what are we actually spending our school money on these days? I’m curious to know… and perhaps see a nice pie chart :P.
I love this topic…it’s one I’ve given a lot of thought to since we added kids to our family.
Ben, these are excellent thoughts and I think your list is spot on. However, I would change two things: rename the post to “10 Things Parents Need to Teach Their Children” and urge/advocate a re-focusing of public/mainstream education on the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic, and the sciences.
At least in the U.S., the education system is modeled to churn out workers to plug into the corporate enterprise (”knowledge workers”). It has been this way for decades…probably since WWII when the economy shifted from an agrarian to an industrial society.
In the information age, this education system is ineffective. Our children need to learn how to think critically and creatively, how to innovate, and how to survive without a corporate entity as a 3rd (or 2nd) parent/crutch (i.e. entrepreneurialism).
However, public schools (at least in the U.S.) by their very charter, cater to the masses. They can’t specialize due to the sheer number of students. They cannot provide the level of attention our children need in these very abstract areas of learning.
As a result, I believe schools should stop trying to field everything and focus on doing 3-4 things with greatness: reading, writing, arithmetic, and the sciences.
Outside of the classroom, I feel it’s the parent’s responsibility to teach their children life’s lessons: cooperation, teamwork, morals, faith, critical/creative thinking, emotional intelligence, giving, technology, personal finance, the arts, physical fitness and nutrition, etc.
Would you, as a parent, leave this important job to an underpaid and under-appreciated instructor whose attention is torn across 30+ other children? I wouldn’t.
[…] Ben at Instigator Blog has a very interesting post entitled 10 Things They Need To Teach in Highschool. […]
I’d add a couple more, plus one. Reading and math. And the other biggie is how to decide how to do what you want to do. How many students leave high school and have never really spent serious time planning thier future.
Yes - all the above! And some purely practical skills, like real cooking from scratch (both healthier than ready-meals or take-aways, and cheaper) and touch-typing (to go with all those blogging skills!).
This type of life-skill should be taught to everyone not just the non-academic children … and not every parent will have the skills themselves to teach their child, so at least some of these should be taught in school.
I visited the how to tie a tie website listed just above this comment, and within seconds I had a warning that the site was trying to send me a trojan…
They don’t teach them because so many people will complain about this and that and whine until they get there way. Also, there are too many old people running the show, meaning they want just math and science. They don’t realize that the world is changing and so is the knowledge that students should be gaining.
Ben,
This is a kick ass post!
Education is close to my heart and our education system is a joke. We need entrepreneurial schools run by entrepreneurs! Not schools run by government bureaucrats and staffed by union members.
People, businesses, and schools today need to be agile. They need to quickly change - adapting to new environments and new ideas and technology. Our current education system will never do that, because the scale of it forces change to be slow and lethargic.
Slow lethargic government is fine with me, but slow letharic education is a disaster. That is why we need to seperate government and education.
Thanks for giving me something to rant about….
I think that personal finance and investing shouldn’t only be taught to high school students but also elementary students. It’s better to start early when it comes to money. Teaching kids how to manage money will give them the idea how to spend their allowance wisely.
Steve - rant away, I’m always happy to help! *grin*
Thank you for everyone’s comments so far, I think the discussion has proven very interesting.
My dad, unfortunately, teaches at a high school. The school has somewhat changed into a inter-city school. He teaches biology and deals with a huge fail rate every year. The problem is all of these ideas are great but that is for people who desire to take those classes. Most of the kids don’t. Some kids would take it but the school doesn’t have funding to have just one class a day on a topic. Personally I would have loved to take classes like this.
….but there they are happy if a kid even graduates.
Great post. I’d add one more item and one subtraction.
Basic respect — They need to constantly hammer into the kids to treat one another with respect. Whether they like or dislike someone, that person is still a human with feelings. Be respectful.
End cut-n-paste projects — I know it’s not on your list but I need to get this one off my chest. Once kids enter High School, they shouldn’t be doing anymore projects that involve what I call “cut-n-paste.” I’m not talking about computers I’m talking about projects where they put junk on poster board etc. They’ll never do that stuff in college or in the business world. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars for these ridiculous “craft” projects only to watch them get thrown in the trash when it’s all done.
Okay, rant all done.
Ben, nice article. I am also very skecptical about the quality of the education we have nowadays.
I dugg it, check it out:
http://digg.com/business_finance/10_Things_They_Need_to_Teach_in_Highschool
Bret - thanks for the comment. That’s hardly a rant, I agree with you.
At least get the kids doing it with PowerPoint or something else where they’re learning a technology skill…we all love PowerPoint presentations after all!
Hello Ben,
I agree with you. Our children do need exposure to a diversity of educational resources, business opportunities, and life experiences to prepare them for the emerging global economy.
Excellent post.
Jeff’s comment resonates with me. Leaving all of the great stuff on this list to a teacher is certainly inadequate.
One thing I would add that I don’t think I see in your list is “relationships”. Certainly high school age kids could benefit from something more than just sex ed.
I love Jeff’s response. Whatever I learnt I learnt it at home. Initial lessons on value, ethics morality all begin at home.
Ben, what about “thinking”? Don’t you think that students know how to “think”? It is funny you post this article on the same day I wrote about thinking and if they should teach this in school.
I think some of those topics are already being discussed with high school students in some schools like religion and faith. I am sure that catholic school teach their students about faith and religion. Anyway, good suggestion.
Hey Ben,
thankx for such a great post. I had lots of fun to pick up your question and post about it myself.
Much power to you!
Steli Efti
This is an excellent list, Ben.
One I’d like to see added would be arts education. That could include the fine arts or music — skills and/or appreciation.
I know this may sound a bit old-fashioned or super-conservative, but how about learning about marriage? People don’t know what is really important for a lasting and fulfilling marriage, and many people aim for Hollywood movie values (not a great example: look at their marriage track record).
In addition to careers etc., many people do aspire to eventually get married, have kids, and then hopefully stay married. It’s an important part of life, but people really don’t seem to know how to do it anymore. Why not try to teach high school kids a bit about it before they head off to real life?
I agree. I am sure that it would be hard to incorporate every single one in the high school curriculum, but teaching the basics would be a good start.
I’ve ‘dugg’ this post too.
I hope this hasn’t already been mentioned, but negtiating a raise and writing letters of resignation should also be touched upon in school.
Two valuable lessons.
Geri - I do think faith + religion are taught in religious schools, but does a Catholic school really teach about other religious? What about a Jewish school?
Jeff - There’s no question that parents need to step up. My son isn’t in school yet but I’ve already thought a great deal about what it will be like and what I’ll do to educate him. Certainly I don’t think reams of homework is the answer.
David - I like the idea of more arts education in schools. I know in Montreal there’s a highschool called F.A.C.E that’s dedicated to the arts. Pretty interesting concept to have specialized highschools although I have no way of knowing if it works or doesn’t (since I haven’t looked into it at length.)
Thank you for everyone’s continued comments!
Ben, great post, great discussion.
Bret, picking up on what you said about respect, I would like to see attention given in schools toward consciously working together and cooperating. This touches on respect for others and for yourself. Our relationships with others are so key.
I would also like to see time given toward students being able to explore their sense of meaning in life and the value of giving and sharing. This could be reflected in self-designed projects.
Thanks,
Stuart Baker
http://www.consciouscooperation.com
I think that P.E. should be mandatory, even in University and college. Now it’s not even mandatory in highschool. We need to get our kids to be more active, not more lazy
@Aniela - Good one, although I’d propose some sort of training/habit which encourages life-long fitness and nutrition. When you get out of school, these are typically the times when our health deteriorates (work, long hours, family, etc.). Fitness and nutrition seem like some of the first to go. And, if it’s not a habit before exiting school, it’s much tougher to develop and less likely to stick. (teach a person to fish…and all that)
Fortunately, my folks got me into sports in grade school and now I just naturally work out a few times a week. Sports and athletic participation has also helped me make friends over the years and find a group to fit in with.
Pretty heavy focus on economical issues here. If there’s anything we should teach our children it’s that the world is turning into a cesspool because of the all-encompassing materialistic paradigm that we live in. It would make more sense to teach them arts and humanities and how to appreciate life rather than teach them how to better size things up for market value. And ethics really goes under philosophy.
My schoool teaches numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10. And I am in a public school.
@Mao - Thank you for the comment. I re-read my list and while there’s definitely a portion of it that’s economically-focused, much of it is not.
Philosophy is an interesting subject but it often lacks a lot of practical usefulness, which I think can be problematic for highschool-aged people. Ethics is much more practical, along with politics and conflict resolution.
I’m all for the arts and humanities as well. I don’t think some of the things I’ve mentioned have to be utterly focused on economics though. Entrepreneurship is a great example. What if it helped raise more Green Entrepreneurs?
@Trevor - Then kudos to your school, sounds like a great place.
Two HUGE things left off this list are relationship skills and parenting skills!!! Otherwise, fabulous list!
It’s nice to see a focus on something creative instead of No Child Left Behind, No Teacher Left Standing. To see innovative thinking for students who struggle in school, check out our web site. It mines the possibilities for serving struggling and problem students.
@steph: Parenting skills is an interesting one. Part me agrees, but part of me thinks that highschool students are too young to really *get* parenting, no matter what you teach them. I have two children, and I know that there’s really nothing I could have learned in highschool that would have helped - specific to parenting.
Some of the other ideas on my list - be it conflict resolution or ethics, however - might help at a 20,000 foot view.
When it comes to parenting though, people very often need the basics. How to feed a child, discipline, what to look out for medically, etc.
Thank you for commenting!
How about empathy? Or the ability to sense a fellow peer with problems?
In recent tragedies of the Virginia Tech shootings or the High school shootings I think young people can surely learn better about one another’s differences.
I’m a high school teacher, and some of the things on your list (and on your responders’ lists) are taught, but not in a distinct class. For instance, I’m an English teacher, and media literacy (distinguishing useful sources from ones without credibility), ethics (when talking about Elie Wiesel’s Night, Sophocles’ Antigone, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar), conflict resolution and teamwork(during the many group projects I require), good citizenship (participating in building the classroom rules we all have to live by, including perks), and finally a little entrepreneurship (I give my students a great deal of choice in proving their knowledge in the various units, and offer them the opportunity to pitch project ideas. Well-thought-out plans are likely to be approved.)
Hi Jen - Thank you for posting a comment. It doesn’t surprise me that some of the topics I’ve listed are weaved into existing classes. But, I have to wonder how effective a discussion on ethics can truly be when tied to literary classics that some highschool students might not find the relevance in. I’d rather get to the heart of relevant matters today instead of couch those issues in more traditional teachings.
Good parallel article over at Zen Habits
27 Skills Your Child Needs to Know That She’s Not Getting In School
Jeff…
What do you think should be taught in highschool?
1. Negotiating.
2. Drama & Speech.
3. Psychology.
4. Cultural Anthropology & Ethics.
5. History.
6. Politics.
7. Health.
8. Economics & International Business.
9. Marketing & Sales.
10. Technology.
12. Grammar, Vocabulary and Writing.
13. Personal Finances.
14. Entrepreneurship & Investing.
I would be glad enough if our schools would just teach whatever they’re supposed to teach PROPERLY.
I know people getting into college that can’t even do basic algebra.