EDUCATION ISSUES -

Need to revolutionize education

 And make it more relevant to real life challenges

 

By Tracy W.

Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, was on the news this week shopping for baby items with her mother, Carole Middleton, who is well known as a skillful and devoted mother. Kate could not be in better hands as she herself approaches motherhood. 

What a difference between Kate and Diana. Diana was so young when she married Prince Charles, and so utterly alone as she faced a tumultuous relationship with her husband and his family. 

Kate, on the other hand, is very close to both her parents and she will benefit from their loving support and counsel.  It's not easy being a royal in the House of Windsor.

 

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All this leads to the issue of how the weakening of the nuclear family and the disconnection with the extended family affects us all.  We can't always count on the benefit of a wise parent or older relative to guide us when we need help the most. Parents are busy working, the father is sometimes absent.  That leaves school as the constant guiding force in the life of a youngster. But schools are often social battlefields.  Distressed youth can feel alienated and alone.

The focus of school curriculum is supposed to be to prepare students for post-secondary education. And much energy is squandered in just making kids behave and listen.  So in the end youngsters learn enough to get through those exams, but the material is forgotten soon after graduation. 

And then they have to face real life, unprepared. They have to deal with finances, dating, living away from home, a more self-structured way of studying, and holding a job.  Some may have live-in relationships, and even face early parenthood. These are all important life issues that were hardly touched by the school curriculum, if at all.

There is a need to revolutionize middle- and high-school curriculum.  It's not enough to give kids detailed insight into sex and reproduction.  What is missing is learning how to manage their lives effectively.

 

Marriage and romantic relationships are areas where kids, who think they know everything, still need guidance. How to get along with people we love, how to establish mutual respect, how to negotiate and compromise, when to break up.

Financial education should be part of the curriculum. Kids should be taught the ugly reality behind debt and credit cards.  They should be taught how a good credit record can benefit their entire lives, and how a bad one can thwart their dreams.  They should be taught how to budget, how to differenciate between wants and needs, and how an early plan for a comfortable retirement can make all the difference.  And with the skyrocketing cost of university, they should be well informed on alternative training.

And last, but not least, they should learn how to be a parent. We think we know. But the reality is that many of us don't find out how ignorant we are on the subject until our kids are in their teens and out of control.  

We should know about children needs beyond the basics of food, shelter, love and education.  They also need spiritual concepts. Not an established religion necessarily, but a connection with God and with nature.  Those who belong to religiously observant families can still suffer from spiritual deprivation, just as much as those from militant atheistic ones.  Ritual and behavioral rules do not satisfy their hunger for God.