At the risk of sounding anti-education (which I'm totally not!), I have been thinking alot lately about how nice it would be to see certain things implemented into our educational system. I got to thinking about this on more than one occasion at work the past few days. It actually came up in a few conversations I had with one or two clients, as well as my supervisor yesterday during a meeting. How much stuff do we learn in school (primarily public schools and to a lesser extent, universities) that we really truly need? Where is the practical intelligence of learning things that have the most effect on our everyday lives?
I realize we all need the basics ("reading, writing, 'rithmetic," as the saying goes) to further ourselves beyond the 'basic' level successfully. But are the basics even 'basic' enough? While children may be learning algebra or what the term 'foreshadowing' means in English class, how is either one honestly relevant to the "real world" as an adult? Unless you want to become a Math and English teacher, not a whole helluva lot.
Again, I'm not anti-education. I do think practical life skills should be taught in our schools though. Did anyone ever show you how to balance a checkbook when you were in school? What about doing your taxes? Did anyone teach you how to effectively deal with conflict management, how to handle confrontations with other people without resorting to nasty verbal or physical fights? What about knowledge on other cultures, races,etc? What about learning how to see, analyze, and appreciate different viewpoints to facilitate open-mindedness in each other? What about teaching others critical thinking, to think for themselves on important decisions and/or developing one's worldview? How about knowing what to do in an emergency situation (how to think fast/'on the fly')? I could go on, as there are many more I could probably think of it illustrate this point if I continue to think critically about it, but that could take all day!
It may sound complex, but don't we come across this stuff frequently throughout our lives? Alot of society's issues stem from this problem area of what's lacking in the overall education system. They deserve a big fat "F" for 'failure' to teach these simple, yet key "learning objectives" in life.
Some critics may argue "Well, that's what parents are for!" Sure, in a perfect world maybe. How many people come from the 'perfect' home where their parents are around or even attentive enough to teach these things (at least without the help of a community/school teaching all this too)?
During my meeting with my supervisor yesterday, we had an interesting segment of conversation. My supervisor was giving me my annual review and we were going over work goals I had set and accomplished since last July. While brainstorming what my new goals for the upcoming year would be, one of the goals I came up with was to learn more about pharmacology/prescription meds. I was telling her how important it was for me to have a background knowledge on different medications people take for mental issues like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia,etc because I have many MISA (Mentally Ill Substance Abusers) clients. In order to understand them and help them most effectively, it would help to familiarize myself with common medications associated with certain mental disorders. I never had a class in graduate school on psychotropic medications.
I told my supervisor how I couldn't understand how EVERYONE in a psychology grad school that is studying to be a therapist could NOT be required to take such a class. Sure, that's what psychiatrists are for, but again.....what about those who can't afford to go to a psychiatrist? Most of my clients are low income. They get meds from their regular doctor and get their counseling with me. In those instances, I take on the pseudo-role of a psychiatrist. I cannot prescribe it, but I certainly still need to be familiar with it. My supervisor agreed with me that people don't teach you the practical things. She pointed out that she never learned how to do a treatment plan or how to conduct a mental assessment in grad school. I didn't either!
Granted, there are going to be things in life that cannot be easily taught. Things happen and we have to utilize whatever intelligence we have at any given time to help us learn the sometimes challenging, tough life lessons. But wouldn't it be nice if at least a fraction of practical things started being taught in schools? It certainly would be one less thing to wonder or worry about.....
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