Why do high schools make everyone take pointless classes instead of teaching how to file taxes & basic cooking?

I mean, what's the point in making ';Pre-Calculus'; a requirement for graduation, when probably the vast majority of HS graduates aren't even going to use Precal in their lives, ever? They could learn it in college instead.



Instead, why can't states mandate a Life Skills class for all graduating high schoolers?

Wouldn't everyone be more socially adjusted if they could learn how to cook basic foods, and not rely on Ramen in college?

It would certainly help with our obesity rates in the long-term, improve public nutrition, and be an actual useful skill.



Perhaps such a class could integrate skills such as filling out taxes, too, since everyone will have to do that. I don't think they're going to have to use pre-calculus skills such as taking arctangents to figure that one out.Why do high schools make everyone take pointless classes instead of teaching how to file taxes %26amp; basic cooking?
LOl i've never heard of pre-calc as a grad requirement for any high school...? If it was i'd be SCREWED!



:ppp I took personal finance...which taught me a lil about taxes %26amp; whatnot.....%26amp; i took home economics in middle school lmao we learned how to cook %26amp; sew :p



As for making them grad requirements...that's not a bad idea actually....

I do see your point in this question though..haha



Making them better prepared for the real word rather than preparing them for higher education. After all, high school is madatory, %26amp; college is not...It's kinna sad how they take out a lot of the classes that prepare students for future jobs when they go out in the real word.

Our high school took out auto-shop my freshman year because it was too costly or whatever...i remember a lot of the guys were pretty mad about that.



I guess especially when you live in certain places they just automatically assume everyone's going to college which is not very fair.Why do high schools make everyone take pointless classes instead of teaching how to file taxes %26amp; basic cooking?
your on to something here! why not talk about it to Obama, send him a letter or something.
Why can't your parents teach you some things. Like life skills. Most parents can teach you how to cook or how to file taxes, or change a tire or balance a check book. Parents and kids rely too much on schools to teach everything.
You are not graduating from one of those ';dumbed down'; schools then? Wonderful!





In the olden times (lol) life skills - and Interpersonal skills (how to cope with life as it comes at you) were taught by the family, in the family home where the elders were part of the family unit and helped to raise the young ones. Do we do this anymore? No, we shuffle off our elders into questionable ';care'; at some ';retirement home'; where these people who raised us now suffer with strangers taking care of them.
Because your parents are supposed to teach you that stuff...but that generational thing got lost someplace in the Consumer Society.



Pity, innit?
Pre-Calculus isn't required for graduation in our district; Actually, I've never actually heard of Pre-Calculus ever being required, but I guess some schools/districts work differently. So the probably isn't the system itself, but rather, simply your high school, and I'll agree. Pre-Calculus shouldn't be manditory (which is why it isn't in most of America), and that's something you'll have to talk to your school about.



Most states don't make Life Skills a manditory class because when it comes to stuff like cooking, most schools assume that the student's parents, guardians, etc. would've already, at the least, taught their own kids how to cook, even if it's just toast. Most public schools don't have the money to teach kids things that they should have been taught by their own parents. School is a place for students to learn, yes, but it is also the parents job to teach their kids a thing or two.



Also, some people (such as myself) are simply terrible at cooking. My mother is a wonderful cook (she's head chef at the restaurant she works at :D), and she's tried to teach me for years now but the only thing I can ever manage to make is, sadly, instant ramen (which is often since my mom doesn't think its healthy; I'll agree, but it's a lot tastier than burnt eggs and toast...) or heating up leftovers in the microwave. If Home Economics was even manditory at my school, I can guarentee you that I'd never be able to graduate from high school, that's for sure! But as an elective, I think most people do take Life Skills or Home Economics or any other elective similar to that, anyways because it's usually considered to be an ';easy A'; and/or because it's ';fun';.
School are ';middle-class'; oriented, thus learning middle class values, beliefs, etc.



Go to college, take an education class, and they'll explain why.



Until then, quit bitching.