MovieChat Forums > Freedom Writers (2007) Discussion > Looking back on high school...

Looking back on high school...

posted 12 years ago by spidervein
2 replies | jump to latest

I am in college now, but the older I get the more I realize that in high school they shouldve be teaching life skills more than anything. I remember a home economics class in 8th grade. That was the most useful class out of any high school class I took. Although, I only had it for one semester (and only was allowed to) for the entire high school career. Well that was 8th grade.

For example, it would have been extremely useful to have been taught how to make a bank deposit or withdrawal. Things of that nature.

Everything is about scores now. Period. "Aceing" tests and academic competition. Even if I wanted to saturate my mind at that time with great knowledge, I couldnt. I had to focus on memorizing/passing tests. Many beginning years the teachers would start handing out info about the last day and tests, on the FIRST day of school. There was literally no time, and teachers a lot of times cut corners. Just did a bunch of crap, some were lazy, didn't care about their job or students. Most didnt. Period. They didn't even have to say they didnt. As a student, you can tell.

School stopped being fun and start being stressful after kindergarten/1st grade.

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Why are you all wet, baby?

[–] bellz9113 12 years ago

I took something called Essentials Math which was the easy/Learning Difficulty based Math. Which taught essential math such as banking/budgeting stuff like that with very little normal math such as trig :P This was offered for a number of years in BC, Canada as part of a 3 tier math class system Essentials-applications-advanced.

Where you choose a direction in Grade 10 and could take the following grade 11 option or combine them to get an equivalent to allow you to get into a higher level. So if you took essentials all the way till grade 12 it would equal Applications 10 and you could do App 11 etc. But the scrapped the program the year following my graduation. From what I understand there is much less banking/practical math taught within the easiest course.

Also in highschool we have a course called Planning Ten (grade 10) where you start to make a life plan I.e Figure out you plan to take and College/university you want to attend and what you will need to get in. As well as minor banking component such as how to open a bank account/write cheques and of course a health component.

Also in order to graduate we had to do something called transitions 12 which was making a very thorough life plan which including budgetary component, health & lifestyle (meal planning/fitness), volunteer hours, a resume/reference letter, as well as what our personal interests our.

Just before grad we had a presentation part & interview where we showcased a table about us which included a final copy of our transitions and proof of our hobbies/interests and things pertaining to our plans. And of course a staff member interviewed us and looked through our plans.

Now transitions were not given a grade value but were mandatory to complete. Failure to fully complete your plan or attend the fair/interview would result in your failure to graduate regardless of academic success.

I actually valued my more practical courses more than my other ones.

[–] bellz9113 12 years ago

I would say in Canada, at least in BC there is very little emphasis in testing/test scores. Not quite like the extent there is in America, anyway.