I have been considering what useful skills and abilities all high school graduates should be in command of upon receiving their diploma.
The Big 3
Reading, writing, and math are the big three of education.
Reading: What should that mean? What should a high school graduate be able to read?
Okay, books, literature, and newspapers. Those are pretty obvious.
But here is what they need to be able to read in order to function as an adult, and today, many adults can’t do some of these:
Insurance policies, real estate contracts, bank policies, credit card policies, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, etc.
Understanding these thing and the vocabulary used in them is very important when it comes to being an educated citizen.
What about the Bible, legal documents, and medical descriptions?
You see, people say that reading is important, but they don’t detail the things they will be expected to read and comprehend in life.
Writing:
So what writing does this mean?
First there are basically 3 kinds of writing: 1. Cursive 2. Printed 3. Typing.
Under printed I think there are two categories, one is simple ordinary printing, and the other is the type of printing that is used in drafting.
There is an intellectual connection between using your hands to write with a pencil or pen to your mental conditioning. Penmanship is most important because it is important that others can read the writing, but also simply for the ability to control your hands to write well.
Typing is obvious because of computers. Without typing, you will be seriously handicapped when writing on keyboards.
Math
What kind of math?
Well, obviously there is basic counting, adding, multiplying and dividing. But what about figuring interest rates, or the size of a room?
Personal finance management is basic to math. It is something that will always tell you the truth.
Art:
Art is important in personal skills because when taught to help children draw what they have in their minds then those skills that will last them a lifetime. One of my best classes in school was Industrial Arts, where we learned to create things with our hands.
The ability to transfer a vision, a dream from your mind to paper is one of the greatest skills a person can have. Then those “dreams” can actually then become “reality”.
Today and in the future art spreads its vast wings to include computer imaging and virtual reality. This is a multi billion dollar skill set.
Music:
The ability to understand what you are hearing, and be able to present something understandably is one of the greatest skills that a human can master.
Music refines the ears, the brain, and the dexterity of the human body. It can be formed into anything today. Not having musical skills in todays world and into the future is a real handicap. Plus, it is beautiful.
Physical Education
Knowing how the body works, learning how to maintain that body, and to set that practice into motion is one of the most vital lessons school aged kids should master.
Sure playing sports is fine, but I am talking about real nuts and bolts stuff like, the calorie content of foods, how to maintain a healthy diet. The things go on and on. But the message is clear, don’t learn how to build and maintain your body will come back and haunt you later.
Timothy Simpson
"Being creative is enough."