Teaching Practical Skills in the Classroom

Our youth absorb an incredible amount of information throughout the course of their studies – which can often be up to two decades worth of instruction – but how much are they actually learning that will prepare them for the real world? I’m sure many parents have uttered the phrase, “why are they teaching you that?” more than a few times to their children, or puzzled over a particularly vague homework assignment. As Napoleon Hill cites in Outwitting the Devil, we are teaching to the test. We’re instructing, but often not teaching our children to learn despite the best efforts of many great teachers. It’s because we’re stuck in this rigid curriculum that values if you can memorize the ancient Greek city states but places no interest in whether you can balance a checkbook. Which do you think will be the greater skill upon graduating from high school and college? I could easily tell you the last time I had to balance my checkbook, but I certainly can’t remember the last time anyone asked me about Greek city states. We need to be teaching practical, real-world skills in the classroom. We must make financial education a part of it. We must teach our children to be entrepreneurs and to think for themselves – not to fall into a system that will put them into more educational debt than they’ll be able to repay in the first 10 years of working! How silly is that? It’s time we teach to the world, because it’s out there waiting for them.