If you don't know how to cook or change oil etc. it's your own fault.

68% Normal
13 Comments

I have seen it, heard it, had it told to me, etc.: Public schools need to teach kids real world skills like how to change oil, how to cook, how to make a budget, how to do taxes.

Well, it simply doesn't work like that right now. Although I feel like real world skills are the parents' job to teach, through experience I have learned that there are many, many parents who feel like their only job is to provide food and shelter and it is the state's issue to handle the rest. Ergo, I feel like the state should include real world skills into their curriculum.

Sadly, this is not going to happen overnight and there's no good reason to not know this stuff considering that most of us have access to a massive wealth of information at our fingertips (you know, the internet).

I feel like people who blame the public school system for their lack of real world skills are making excuses to not take the initiative to just fucking google it. Research it. Find your own answers. Go to a bank. Ask the people who work there how it all works. Look up recipes on the internet. The recipe involves quartering the potatoes? Google how to quarter potatoes.

I'm only slightly more intelligent than a fucking box of rocks and I learned all of the aforementioned skills (which I am very proficient at and teach others on almost a regular basis) simply from looking it up.

is it normal that I feel like people who don't know these real world skills are to blame for not taking the initiative to learn them?

Voting Results
68% Normal
Based on 34 votes (23 yes)
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Comments ( 13 )
  • wigz
    8 years ago

    "I feel like people who don't know these real world skills are to blame for not taking the initiative to learn them?"

    That depends. Is the person struggling? Are they even aware there is a different way of doing things? A lot of people think they are doing things right so they don't think of looking things up or asking for help. I mean, you don't tend to google things you already 'know'.

    It's not worth a lot of people's time to change their own oil. That's kind of an odd one to throw in there. Tools/equipment (filter wrench and a socket are inexpensive but plenty of cars are so low to the ground you need a way to get under it), time, restricted by where you live, car leases or dealer incentives offering free oil changes, it's not always smart or possible to change your own. After accounting for oil and filter you really only save a few dollars diy'ing, is it worth it? It just depends.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      8 years ago

      I was referring more so to people who want to know something or wish they knew something or complain about being taught something more than anything else.

      Changing oil is stupid cheaper to do at a shop than yourself sometimes. Granted, I've saved a ton of money in the long run on maintenance just doing it myself but I'm ok with taking the cost. I'm from that kind of family. Not knowing and saying you wish you did but not finding out, on the other hand, is fucking stupid in my book. That and doing something wrong and being unaware of it and not even trying to do it but complaining are two different scenarios in my book. At least the former is taking some initiative.

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      • wigz
        8 years ago

        OK, I gotcha. In that case it could be laziness, maybe they are just talking out their ass and don't really intend to put in any effort, or they're wishing they had learned earlier and now it seems impossible or pointless to do anything. We're all guilty of those things to some degree.

        I think this basic life stuff should be part of school too. Ideally parents would teach kids this shit but really, the parents often aren't very knowledgeable.

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      • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
        8 years ago

        not sure why yallre sayin its greener to do at a shop unless yallre dumpin the old oil down somewhere yall shouldnt be

        any autoparts shop who sells yall oil is required by law to take the old oil back

        hell theres people beggin for it on the craiglist cause they gots waste oil furnaces to heat theys shop

        i calls bullshit on greener

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        • Anonymous Post Author
          8 years ago

          I didn't say greener. I said cheaper. For me, it works out. I'm going to need lifts for other jobs and I already have the tools.

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          • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
            8 years ago

            well im dyslexic or whatever it is ehere yall cornfuse letters from different rowsa text

            i did a jiffylube earl change exactly once causea extenuatin circumstances and it cost me almost 80 bucks so i do see a fucktona savins by doin it myself

            plus if i does the job then i controls what products git used

            and someone else layin a wrench on myall vehiclesis like someone else layin a dick on my woman

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    • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
      8 years ago

      its a pointa pride for me

      and used oils great for burnin brush

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      • wigz
        8 years ago

        Sure, I get that. I have an old truck that I'd never send off for an oil change. But my Lincoln?? Ha, fuck that. Done it, was NOT worth it one bit. It's worth the $10 to just have it done.

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        • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
          8 years ago

          and i git yalls point but theys just trying to scare yall with fancy newfangled shit

          thats the attitude they wants yall to have

          Its still just a motor

          dump the earl out put new in
          spin off the filter spin new on

          more indepth stuff might need a laptop or some help from the interwebz but is still totally doable

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  • green_boogers
    8 years ago

    It's hard to have a service oriented economy unless you have dumb people that don't take initiative.

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    • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
      8 years ago

      summed up nicely

      as a hardcore diy guy whos rewired my own house rebuilt my own motors and transmissions does my own taxes theres only one service ill happily pay for

      and thats 20 bucks for the vet to maintain the glands in my dawgs asshole

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  • Steven Glansberg
    8 years ago

    Real world skills, in particular personal finance, will never make it into the classroom because the banks would lobby against it. They depend on stupid people taking out loans they cant afford, amassing heaps of credit card debt at nosebleed interest rates, and handing over their accounts for other people to manage and earn fees on

    Furthermore, cooking and cleaning skills cant make it into the classroom either since all the infomercial companies and other useless product manufacturers need to sell their crap to dumb people as well

    Interestingly they do teach Drivers Ed in school. And computer classes. I guess there are some minimum skills that need to be taught after all

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      8 years ago

      Although I'm relieved that you don't seem to have a major disagreement with my opinion, I have to beg to differ here.

      Many schools have home economics (cooking, sewing etc.), finance courses (my school made it mandatory for all Freshmen to take a "life skills" course for at least one semester - they didn't start offering it until my Sophomore year) and many schools have auto-shop and wood-shop classes but not enough schools do.

      The focus in public schools is more bent towards test scores if anything. We try to take every opportunity we can to do more but there's only so much we can do.

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