If you want to BE a writer,

Spoiler Alert – I do

you have to practice writing

A lot.

It often starts with the stark white blank page with the blinking cursor like someone drumming their fingers impatiently …

or the pencil you’ve sharped eighty bajillion times to get the perfect point hovering over the college ruled notebook paper waiting for you to make your mark…

or hours spent testing every pen you own to find the one that writes with the exactly right smoothness that also isn’t out of ink because you reach for it every time…

It can be daunting.

Prompts can help to get the creative juices flowing.

Recently, this showed up in a daily writing prompt…

What’s a thing you wish schools actually taught?

Of course I have opinions on this… 

I love teachers.

My mom was a teacher

(and a coach which is why I didn’t play sports and opted for dance instead)

My Grandmother was a teacher.

Teachers do NOT make enough or get enough respect for the work they do.

So it’s hard to talk about this without feeling like I’m somehow saying that teachers are somehow failing.

That is 1000% NOT what I’m saying.

Teachers are doing the best they can with what they have and where they are.

The SYSTEM however has, as I like to include on performance improvement plans, 

Areas of Opportunity.

I don’t want to get all “Get off my lawn” here, but back in the 1900s, we were taught things that I don’t believe are still in the current day curriculum

Teachers – please correct me if I am misinformed

Gen Xers can proudly proclaim skills that current generations may not have – 

• How to read and write cursive
• How to drive a stick shift
• How to find answers without the Googles.
• Patience… having to wait through a commercial or wait for next week’s episode to resolve the cliffhanger hits differently that “stream next episode”
• Sharing a landline – without call waiting
• Answering every phone call because you had NO CLUE who was on the other end
• How to make a collect call to get picked up without actually paying for it

we can’t be the only ones who did that, right? 

Automated voice: “State your name” 

Me: “We’re ready to be picked up at the bowling ally mom” *hangs up phone*

I could go on and on and on….

Some of those may not be useful, but there were other things that we were taught that I don’t think are still as prevalent in today’s lesson plans…

probably because it’s not on a standardized test.

Does that make it any less useful?

How to balance a check book.

I know.  I know.  Who even writes checks any more?  But relying on your bank to be infallible or knowing how much was in your bank account based on the current balance, forgetting all the things you bought that haven’t cleared yet?  That’s a recipe for disaster and a game I used to play I called “Beat the bank”

I lost that game more than a few times.

(aka why my 30 year old self had to rebuild my credit)

On the other hand, a lot of my 9-to-5 involves teaching adults how to reconcile their finances, so yay for job security.

Side note – I was in Hobby Lobby picking up a few things for the drawer liners for my Kobalt mini last week. 

The patron in front of me was a young-ish mom who was SHOCKED that they didn’t accept “Tap to Pay”

Have you ever been to Hobby Lobby?  They don’t even scan your treasurers.  They key in each item, one by one.  But you think they have Tap to Pay?  

But I digress.

When she ran her card, it declined. 

So the line had to wait while she electronically moved money around from her venmo to the card she was using, all while balancing her baby on her hip. 

Was I annoyed?  Not really. 

Moreso, I had a fleeting thought back to the days when your card declined and you had to do the walk of shame away from the register unless you had cash in hand.

How to read a map

I’m spoiled.  I use my phone’s map feature to go just about anywhere now.  

There’s a slowdown ahead?  No problem, Google or Apple will reroute me.

But I didn’t even HAVE a cell phone until college. 

Before that, you had to print out the mapquest directions

Before THAT you had a map. 

A physical, paper (or laminated if you were fancy) spiderweb of streets and highways that never folded back the right way

Health Education

This isn’t a “my generation is better than your generation” thing. 

I don’t think any generation has a good foundation here

Oh sure, we learned all about the ever evolving food pyramid.

We learned the importance of washing our hands.

and I think there was a 6 week section on sex-ed that we giggled through

But do we really learn about how to get and stay healthy? 

Beyond the physical – what about mental health?  Emotional Health?

Social interactions can improve or destroy your health, and we just throw a bunch of kids together and hope they figure it all out?

Cool cool cool…

Social Professional Skills

In my various careers, I’m often in a position to hire new members for the team.

Often I’ve hired entry level roles, with little to no experience in the field. 

I actually love that.

Fewer bad habits to train out of someone who did it “this way” and their last job.

More focus on the soft skills like curiosity and creative problem solving.

But many also have zero clue how to show up in a professional setting.

What is and is not appropriate in a workplace.

How to properly build relationships with their peers (networking – not hooking up)

Personal Accountability, critical thinking and problem solving would serve more practical purpose than most of the word problems we had to solve in math class…

More vocational learning

I am glad to see the schools around here offering more vocational learning

Not everyone needs to go to a traditional university to find success

but basic homemaking skills should be part of the mandatory curriculum… not an elective

• How to cook
• How to fix things that break
• How to change a tire
• How to be an adult

How to give back

I’m not talking about financially.  Not every has free money to donate to the worthiest of causes… 

but other than those who need it for their college applications

or those with court mandates to serve community service

do we teach how rewarding it can be to volunteer your time or your talents?

Teachers are NOT the problem

I can’t say that enough

The system isn’t designed to support educating children to be fully well rounded adults.

We rely on other educational intervention – from parents, church leaders, each other… 

but if no one is teaching these skills, who will pass on the knowledge?

I guess we always have Google and Youtube.