Exactly backwards

EnidBuzz asked a repeated question: What should schools be teaching? Most answers were variations on Life Skills.

A teacher said:

Most of these answers are things PARENTS should be teaching their kids. As a teacher, I frankly don’t have time to raise your kids.

Exactly wrong. 90% of what schools teach is strictly unnecessary and won’t help with life or work. Arithmetic has been unnecessary for 100 years. Since 1920 businesses have been using adding machines, then calculators, then computers. The basic operations have been done by machines. Now the machines take care of grammar and spelling. The machines DON’T help you to apply the basics to real life. They don’t tell you when to add and when to multiply. They don’t tell you when to be “grammatical” and when to talk English.

The original purpose of public schools was the same as any government service or business. We pay a business or service to take care of tasks we CAN’T do on our own for whatever reason. In 1910 when public schools were formalized, very few parents could teach arithmetic or spelling, so the school was needed to handle those.

A few parents are good at teaching life skills. Even those who know how to wash dishes or hang pictures or spot termites or apply for jobs aren’t necessarily good at TEACHING the kids those skills.

My mother knew how to cook and vacuum and wash dishes but never taught me or showed me. I doubt that she knew how to train. My father was an excellent trainer. His training in scientific thinking and practical math has served me well. But he didn’t bother with vacuuming and dishwashing.