
Not every school offers comprehensive classes on "adulting", but wouldn't it be hugely beneficial?
Examples of such classes would include maintaining financial stability and healthy relationships; and preparing for job interviews in a professional manner – and yes, even cooking and cleaning.
According to Study International, adulting classes are not only offered in universities but also in schools through private courses and in libraries.
But what if adulting classes were mandatory additions to the school curriculum?
Wondering about the logistics of learning basic life skills as part of an academic requirement, Redditor anafaurberto asked:
"How would you feel about school taking up an extra hour every day to teach basic 'adult stuff' like washing clothes, basic cooking, paying taxes?"
Everything But The Kitchen Sink
"My rural a** school did this in the 00s.... home ec, sewing, taxes, cooking, woodworking, etc. Could even get into metal working, accounting, quilting, pottery, etc if you wanted to."
Value Of Education
"My school did the same. I was a good student but at that age you just don't realize the valuable information they're giving you, you kept the information long enough to pass the tests and then you went and got alcohol poisoning in a field while your parents thought you were at a movie with Nicole and Becki."
Fun With Pasta
"My home ec class had groups of three students try to make one pot of spaghetti and every single group's spaghetti was inedible in different ways and it made me afraid to try cooking again."
Meanwhile, In Australia
"This is kind of the basis for home ec (the main subject I teach) as it is these days in Australia. It's moved towards solution-based problem solving. Students learn about how ingredients interact with one another under different conditions, they learn about nutrition, they learn about technology in food (ranging from how UHT works to GMOs to drones in agriculture), about ethics in the food industry, food security, marketing, sustainability, etc. It's a huge subject. In their last couple of years they can choose to do a subject that is focused on cooking and the hospitality industry but they can also choose more academic subjects around food and/or health so up until then we cover all the stuff they need to know and be capable of doing to go either way. Kids fresh into high school start super basic and make a couple of very easy things with the real purpose of teaching them to be safe, work both independently and with others, write and follow a plan based on a recipe, and clean up properly. It's also when we start teaching them why they need to use brown vs white sugar and keep eggs out of the fridge for baking, etc. At my school it's mandatory in their first year and after that they can choose."
Swedish Options
"We have this in Sweden."
"Sewing and woodworking are the two options of 'crafting' class. You get to try both and then pick one to stick with."
"We have 'hemkunskap' (maybe it's called something different now, this is middle school/junior high stuff and I'm 30 this year so been a while), directly translating to 'home knowledge,' where, at least when I did it, mostly did cooking, but there was some classes and tests on washing clothes, cleaning and such things. Some home economy as well."
"There was nothing on taxes afaik, but here I pay taxes by logging into our equivalent of the IRS's website and press a button."
Definitely 'No' To Extra Class Hours
"My school had a class like that, most of the classmates didn't pay attention and now complain 10 years later that they never learned about taxes and credit card interest. Also some parents were super upset about the school 'overstepping' their boundaries by teaching basic budgeting, I can't imagine that situation has gotten any better in the last 10 years. I'm not against the class being taught, but at the at the end of the day you have to realize that all that stuff is easily learned once you are an adult with just a minimum amount of research - if someone isn't taking the 15 minutes it takes to learn how to wash their clothes properly or watch a youtube video for a basic recipe as an adult when they actually need to do those things to function, no way in hell as a teen would they pay attention to a class that tried to teach them that. It's still a good idea to have the class, but it isn't some magical fix everyone seems to think it is.
I am against the adding an extra hour of school though on top of regular school though."
Attentions Spans
"Right? I mean, there's a class on budgeting and credit cards already. IT's call Math class and everybody hates it and doesn't pay attention. I blew people's minds in high school one day by actually USING the quadratic formula to find the maximum of something. That's like the first thing you cover when you get to quadratics."
"Other things that are teaching actual skills like home ec or woodworking are fine and should be encouraged more. But everybody looking around and wondering why they weren't told about interest rates isn't paying attention in math class. Full stop."
Would Be A "Full-Time Job"
"I'd be opposed to the extra hour. But not the activities."
"School was already an 8 hour a day thing, pushing it up to 9 hours means it actually becomes longer than a full time job. And that's before you get to homework and sh*t like that."
No Obligation
"I agree. It could be done as an elective. These are things that could and should be taught by parents, but they aren't things all parents know, and not all kids have parents who would take the time to teach them either way. It should be available for kids who want it, but not required, and certainly not adding an extra hour to the school day."
Enough Is Enough
"Lets be real. It's already pushing overtime every single week. We just had to take our work home with us and spend an hour (or more) working on it every night. Hell, some kids push 50+ hours every week."
Here's The Point Of Education:
"Schools have these already and the kids in them don't care. It's not immediately relevant to their lives so they don't pay attention. Sorta like if I were to talk to you about the do's and don'ts of denture cream. You say, 'eh, I'll figure it out later when I need to know it' and stop paying attention."
"I've taught in several schools that have tried to teach social skills, kindness, meditation, financial literacy, etc. In every case, the kids did not care. It was their least favorite part of the day because it felt like a waste of time."
"The point of education is to teach thinking, not doing. A well-educated student can teach themselves these things. A quick Google search can teach you how to file taxes, cook, etc. But you can't Google how to do Algebra 2 and expect to understand what you read without some background in the subject matter."
"Edit: I got upvotes? Now I'm mad with power, so I'll say this:"
"I hear arguments like this post all the time, and I think the real issue is people not taking responsibility. 'I can't cook? That must be the school's fault! We need education reform!' No, it's not the school's fault. It's your fault. You could literally Google a recipe in 20 seconds. Stop blaming other people for your problems."
"People don't realize that the point of education isn't to teach facts, but the change your brain. For example, physics and math majors earn the highest scores in the MCAT, GMAT, and LSAT. It's not because they learned those things in class, but because their curriculum emphasizes logical thinking. When students slack in schoolwork, they're not just missing out on the opportunity to know stuff; they're missing out on the opportunity to be smarter."
– gman4734
It's About Developing The Brain
"People don't understand that education is more about developing the brain rather than retaining knowledge."
"You can easily obtain knowledge from reading a book or watching videos. But education forces you to do stuff like read and write a lot or practice a lot of math problems. Those tasks help develop the brain and develop critical thinking skills."
"Even undergrad programs in engineering are not really meant to retain knowledge. They are meant to wire the brain to think like an engineer. Most of your knowledge in engineering is going to come from training you receive in industry and just working in projects in industry."
A good majority of Redditors believed that any additional time spent at school for the sake of acquiring adulting skills was a waste of time.
The argument that students go to school to learn how to learn remained a compelling one, and that the discovery of how to cook or doing laundry was either a quick Google or YouTube search away.
Because spending more time at school than necessary is awesome, said no one, ever.
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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