Today’s provocative question is about formal education. We all have our opinions on how best to educate and prepare our children to succeed in today’s highly complex world. So this begs the question:
What do you think is the one subject (or thing) that should be taught in school that isn’t?
Sadly common sense does not seem to be on the curriculum, but that’s only one thing I’d like to see encouraged in schools.
I have no kids, so maybe I should have passed on the question this week, but casting my mind back some years, even to a time when I was at school, there was something that perhaps could have been taught but wasn’t.
Some people may be surprised by my suggestion, but when you read about the violence and attacks on our streets, it makes us wonder for our safety, especially that of a solitary person. Rape is not always the reason for, or result of, an attack, but it happens, and my dad always told me a girl could run faster with her skirts up than a guy could with his pants down, so a well placed knee could give her the time required to get away.
Whilst I am not suggesting anyone should deliberately pick a fight with someone else, the thought of teaching the basics of self defence in our schools has always stayed with me.
I attended an all girls grammar school, and it would not have hurt to be taught enough to deck an attacker and get away safely.
Of course today it would be difficult for such instruction due to social distancing for one thing, and no doubt someone would be bleating about personal injury and threatening law suits, but a deterrent is better than being overcome and forced into submission. Or worse.
A friend and her husband were anxious about the safety of their teenage daughter, but she beat them to it and enrolled in a karate school. She is in her late twenties now and a black belt so can take care of herself should the situation arise.
But it’s not just girls is it. My brother was picked on at school so my grandfather taught him to box. Bro decked the bully, but it was he who got the cane because the kid was a haemophiliac and thought he was bulletproof. Bro didn’t know that, but the kid left him alone after that.
Just my opinion.
pensitivity101 
Good opinion! I learnt some self defense techniques in my mid twenties, from the police department in the area where I lived back then. Simple things but effective if I had been attacked. It was a possibility too, because I often rode the bus and got home well after dark. I lived alone and my house was in an industrial area, so there weren’t many around at night. But I wasn’t afraid, and less so after my lessons.
Thanks Melanie.
I believe that a good personal finance course in HS would benefit many… They don’t understand how credit cards work and can get into an awful financial mess because they don’t have a clue about interest. Same goes for mortgages. If my parents hadn’t taught me to balance a checkbook I’d have ended up like a college friend – she always “rounded” in her ledger and ended up not really knowing how much she really had – ended up in a little trouble when she had a check that she figured would be covered and it wasn’t!
This is equally important Val and something that could be taught a lot easier via the internet!
I agree with you Di! I think all schools should teach self defense. xo