Do you think that we would have less of an obesity problem in our society if our education system was overhauled to include mandatory cooking classes, nutritional science, exercise science, physical exercise (not the PE classes that exist nowbut military style PT, runs, calisthenics, lifting etc.)
This is all part of the same argument I've made many times before on teaching other real world skills such as changing oil or fixing a toilet, garbage disposal, finance management etc.
I'm 30 years, so I might be off the mark but looking back the most useful thing I ever learned in school (besides basic math, English etc.) - was my social skills. I remember spending 7-8 hours a day doing things that I have honestly never used in my life yet all the things I listed above- the fitness stuff, the rest as well...those are things I had to learn on my own and I use them all the time.
I want this discussion to focus on the fitness/health portion but I felt the rest was worth mentioning.
youcantflexcardio
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ETA there’s no reason we can’t be better than our parents at some things. I certainly hope I’m a better cook than my mom was. I’ll never sew as well as she did, no matter how much schooling I might get.
And that class could also include a section on how to lead your kids by example.
Yeah but the problem is there are obese parents, parents who couldn't manage a piggy bank, parents who can't change a tire, parents who think McDonald's is healthy etc.
Like my parents taught me really well with finances, but neither of them know *kitten* about nutrition and exercise and growing up I was skinny fat and then chubby because of it.
Edit, not because of it, but I definitely didn't have a dad that made controlled portions and said let's go for a bike ride.
I'm actually going as far as to say overhaul the whole system - screw reading pride and prejudice and learning trig (those should be electives), we're going for a group run and then we're going to make steak and eggs and learn how to change a spark plug.
Most of the stuff you mention was available to me as an elective in high school. I took nutrition and I took a variety of fitness classes because I was a competitive athlete. I took shop and learned how to change oil and a spark plug, etc. I took home economics and learned how to cook and hung out with a lot of pretty girls. I also took an accounting elective.
There's only so much time in school...you can't make a bunch of electives mandatory curriculum without crowding out math, science, history, etc
Like COGypsy said. You can’t make kids learn it or like it, you can only offer it.
Side note— we had a science teacher, small physics class, farming community. Physics was hard for us, until we started talking about how it pertains to tractors and pulling plows and we all got it instantly. Same applies to math and recipes, math and sewing, etc. give them a reason to learn it and you get their attention.
I grew up in a small town where the best teachers made sure to make real world connections to what was taught and most worked in their fields outside of academia. Our home economics teacher was a CPA. Shop teachers were mechanics & tradesmen. Parents were commonly brought in to speak to areas of expertise. My mom came in a few times to teach first aid and nursing. My father came in to demonstrate welding.
Our PE teachers handled health and we sort of covered CICO, but nowhere near the refinement we know today. We are back in a small town atmosphere which has a lot more parental involvement. Not sure where they stand on health yet as we just moved in, but it appears to focus more on a eat less, move more philosophy - just do it gradually.
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In general I think the US' education system needs to be changed in some major ways, but not in the ways you've mentioned. Outside of financial literacy and what not.
I can see the exercise related things you're talking about being a major issue for many students, though I do think that swimming coupled with water safety should be offered whenever possible (even if that means bussing students to a pool), though there are multiple logistical issues I can think of. The school that my two of my friends' daughter does this (though they have their own indoor pool), but there are a number of options in terms of swimming groups by gender and students who are say, allergic to chlorine (like said daughter), can get out of the requirement.
It sounds good in theory, but think it fails in our politically correct/polarized world. If you teach nutrition that included consuming animal products, do you have vegetarian/vegan groups coming out protesting? On finance, do you teach a Dave Ramsey, no debt other than a mortgage or something else?
One of those things you can only see in hindsight. I hated school until I went to college and talked to other people and what a miserable time they had by comparison.
One of my gen ed courses as an undergrad was Communications 101, but instead of just teaching the material our professor and assistants used each module to make sure people knew the basics - changing oil, paying bills, managing a budget, basic home repair, etc. Every group had to teach the class how to do something - make a presentation and a demonstration.
I think the more pressing issue would be accommodating major food allergies and intolerances. There are also other food related issues that would come up as well (ex. food choices made on the basis of religion as well as the vegetarian and vegan stuff that you mentioned), but my major concern would be about accommodating students who for health reasons can't eat and/or prepare XYZ ingredients.
That said, presumably there are schools that are already dealing with this given that cooking is taught at various schools around the world.
Finances and budgeting are also available in essential mathematics, applied mathematics even in middle years classes units on financial math are part of everyones studies. I always see posts on facebook similar to this thread. Why don't schools teach kids about lifeskills, the reality is they do!
There's something so incredibly depressing to me about the proposal that we should decide to ditch the entire traditional concept of education and instead just focus on basic skills to maintain life. I don't believe we need schools if all they're going to be offering is instructions on how to cook eggs and execute basic mechanical tasks.
Most kids are learning skills from demonstration videos so it might be more important to teach kids how to evaluate informative ones from misleading ones.
It would teach children that physical activity is sometimes you have to find time for outside of work (school, for them) and encourage them to seek out activities that they enjoy.
Please don't. There's already too many college students that don't know trig, mathematical and scientific literacy will be increasingly important in the job market and it's a lot easier to learn practical skills on your own than theory.
I don't think @youcantflexcardio was saying ditch the traditional concept of education, just put in a few requirements for life skills.