Educational Opportunities at Home

      This past weekend my daughter asked me a very interesting question. We were on our way home from a local store after purchasing some motor oil, a filter for the car, and a few other items. This was the day my seventeen year old girl was going to learn how to change the oil in the car.

     “Why don’t they teach these kinds of life skills in regular schools anymore?”

     Her question was a bit of an exaggeration, and a blanket one at that, but there was also legitimacy to it. Many schools don’t teach everyday life skills - how to cook, how to sew, how to change the oil on your car, how to do your taxes, or balance a budget. There are still schools that teach consumer math rather than trigonometry, but I have discovered that the class has become more of an elective intended for those students who don’t plan to attend college rather than a required course for everyone.

     I tried to explain to her that as mankind progresses our base of knowledge broadens. With the limitations of time and classroom environments, they need to choose what things to teach and what things to let go of. As we (people in general) learn and develop we gain greater understanding of the various sciences and maths, as well as the ever-lengthening history we leave behind us. Many schools have chosen in favor of classes that will lend themselves to a variety of higher education studies rather than basic life practices.

     My daughter thinks they chose wrong. In many ways I think she is right.

     A person who can do calculus but can feed themselves will have a hard time surviving. A person who can balance matter at an atomic level but can’t balance a budget will struggle in the day-to-day business of life. Not everyone needs to be a mechanic but knowing a few things about how your car works, and it’s routine maintenance, will serve you well whether you are a professor at Harvard or a grocery store clerk. My daughter found out that, for $25 and ½ hour of her time, she can do something that would have cost her well over $100 minimum to have someone else do. She also discovered why mechanics are sometimes referred to as ‘grease monkeys’ but that is beside the point.

     Food preparation is another skill many children are not learning. I spent some time working in a school kitchen and have seen with my own eyes what some kids bring to school for lunch - and not because of financial difficulties. One child would regularly bring packaged cookies and a bag of microwave popcorn as her lunch. I can’t count the times when she would show me her lunch and it consisted of mini-doughnuts and left over Halloween candy. She was happy with it and had packed it herself… this girl was 15. 

     Another valuable skill is knowledge about how to use tools. Simple home repair is exceptionally useful. Fixing a cupboard door or replacing an air filter on an AC unit are not difficult jobs and only require the ability to handle a screwdriver. Painting an interior wall is even fairly simple if you know what to do with a paintbrush and some painters tape. It is important that our children learn how to do the things that are part of living self-sufficiently.

     I am not saying these things merely to be critical. I am pointing out that if our children are to learn basic life skills it is up to us, as parents, to teach them. Homeschoolers have an advantage of time and consistency, since they are at home more and have the freedom to choose what things to include in the curriculum, but parents of traditional school children have the same responsibility. These things don’t take that much time and are highly valuable for your child.  Involve your children in preparing the daily meals. Teach them to change to oil on your car over a weekend. There are some kids who have made it all the way to high school and don’t even know how to address a letter to be sent through traditional mail (having them receive mail, like the Adventure Letters, might be a good way to help in this department!).

     What are some other things you believe are important for our children to learn? I would love to hear your suggestions - maybe it is something I have left out of my child’s education!