This statement will probably seem strange coming from a woman who took Shop in high school, ( I probably shouldn't divulge that information since I write books on cleaning) but we need Home Ec in our schools!
The children of today are not learning basci life skills! They don't know how to clean their homes, manage a checking account and crediti cards or prepare healthy food. Half of them don't even know how to set a table! I understand colleges have started offering courses on proper table setting. They have learned how important this is to society and and that it's a skill everyone should learn. Well, you don't say!
No one does chores with their kids anymore. Children used to learn by helping their mom and dad take care of the home, but now everything is done for them.. They have a cleaning service for the cleaning, a lawn service for the yard work and they eat out more than they cook at home. So, life skills are heading the way of letter writing-becoming obsolete.
Now, I'm not saying we should start teaching wood chopping and lye soap making in the schools, but we need to go backward, so our children can move forward on their own. Knowing how to take care of yourself and your environment, is one of the most important things you can teach a child.
Many of you, might have heard the graduation speech, Mark Silone Head of the Navy Seals gave recently, stressing the importance of teaching a Seal to make their bed everyday. He said" That is the first thing we teach a new recruit, because if the recruit has a bad day, he will at least be able to come home to a well made bed, and doing one thing right everyday, leads to doing something else right, and the list continues to grow." So, in my opinion, something that important, should be taught in our schools.
By the time a child is sixteen, he should know how to do the following things:
Clean an entire house
Make family meals
Do his own laundry
Manage a checking account
Manage a creit card
Imagine how good it would feel, to send your child off to college, secure in the knowledge that he could take care of himself? Well, if they learned these basic life skills in high school, you could.
I was in Target a few months ago, and overheard a conversation between a young couple that aptly demonstrates what our young people are learning about cleaning. You could tell that was money was tight for them and the young lady wanted to buy a box of dusting wipes. The young man was having trouble justifying the purchase.She started yelling " I can't dust the house without them!" He caved, and bought them. Really!
It seems thay are learning their cleaning habits from commercials!
I know, you all are getting tired of hearing me preach about teaching children to clean, but I think it's so important. I would like to run a survey to see how many people feel the way I do about this subject.
If you agree these things should be taught in schools, please share this post with your friends. And who knows, maybe it will get someone's attention.
Schar Ward