I finished school in 2016, did my A-Levels from then until 2018 and graduated from university in 2021. Whilst I was doing these things, particularly when I was at school, one thing I realised was that the teachers would paint this picture of what the 'real world' looks like and that the whole point of their lessons was for them to teach and prepare us for this world. Don't know about anyone else, but this 'world' that they told us we would experience has not happened for me.
They all made it out like every single little thing they taught us would be needed to apply to the 'real world'. Okay, but in what 'real world' is anyone applying Pythagoras theorem? Sure, there may be a few people who use this, but I can guarantee the vast majority of us have never used it since we sat our maths GCSE, however long ago that was for you. And I now understand that maths can help teach you problem-solving skills that you need for everyday life, but we don't need to learn problem-solving skills by learning a load of pointless and incredibly confusing stuff in the process.
The main gripe I have with schools not teaching us actual real-world stuff is with my core studies lessons (also known as PSHE). These are the main lessons where your teacher is supposed to teach and prepare you for the real world by informing you of real-world stuff. But we never really learnt anything in these lessons. We only had one of these lessons a fortnight and, in my opinion, these were needed WAY more than that. But the only thing I can remember from these lessons were putting a condom on a banana and being told not to take drugs or drink too much alcohol. Sure, those are somewhat helpful, but there were so many other things school could have taught us that would have been way more useful.
Let's take finances as an example. I know nothing about finances. I know nothing about taxes. I know nothing about mortgages. What's not helpful is that I would love to be self-employed at some point and that involves having to do your own taxes and I have no idea how to do that. I have no idea about pensions. Martin Lewis' show and website are particularly good for learning more about finances so I would definitely recommend you watch his show or take a look at his website if there is a finance question you need answering. But I would have much preferred to learn about this stuff in school because this would have given me the basic knowledge to then be able to progress further with that and maybe know a bit more about where I could look for help now.
I've spoken in the past about the fact there are plenty of things we should have been taught in school but weren't. I don't think it's fair that kids are continually being placed into a system that no longer works for them. The system needs updating, and it needs updating now. It needs to reflect modern society and involve subjects/lessons that actually teach children useful information about the world around us so they are better prepared for when they leave the education system. I still personally struggle to see what I actually learnt in school that was of any use. Do you?
Love Beth xx