Should high school students be taught life skills?
Yes.
Yeah, okay, yes, agreed, yeah.
Forbes Magazine recently reported, many students
are graduating without knowing how to boil water,
sew a button, or do their own laundry.
What?
Prompting a debate over whether these life skills
should become a part of the curriculum.
Yes.
And now listen, the audience is like,
yes, agree, agree, agree.
Tube team, what do you all think?
Well I say yes, because I used to take home economics.
(audience cheering) I love it.
Yay, I love it. I had fun,
that's when I learned how to cook my first meal.
Yes. Sew a button, you know,
and then we also had carpentry and woodwork.
So you learn how to just do some basic things.
And can I tell you, I also think them eliminating
that is why so many kids nowadays,
they expect their parents to do everything.
And then also I think that that's another reason why kids
are also staying at home longer.
I do, I honestly do. Well one thing,
is if they honestly can't boil water
don't belong to any of us.
Because if they belonged to us,
they would know how to do all that.
One of the things I think that's so great about this,
it's not just, which I think are important,
cooking and sewing skills, but it's things like
how to balance a, you know.
Checkbook. Checkbook.
Yes, how to write a check. How to file your taxes.
How to write a check.
You know, how to apply for a loan,
how to apply for a credit card,
how to know what your credit score is.
How to have good credit.
There are so many skill that kids need
that they don't get taught, and unfortunately,
everybody doesn't have parents, you know, that are,
at home all the time that they can teach those skills.
So I am all in favor of schools making life skills
a very big part of the curriculum.
Yes, agreed.
Judge Mary?
I'm all for it as well, but I think a lot of this
should fall on family, if the parents,
and that the parents should make,
during their family time, the concerted effort.
Not all kids have parents, Mary, what about foster kids?
And kids that aren't in stable homes?
Well, see, now you want to argue extremes.
I'm just saying.
Extreme?
Do you know how many kids live in foster care?
That's not extreme.
To the general public population,
it's not a large percent.
What I'm saying is.
What about those that work?
You know what, if you don't want to hear my opinion
I won't give it.
I want to hear your opinion, Mary,
absolutely I want to hear it.
(laughs) I love that look you give me all the time.
I'm just saying that the parents should also take
a very big concerted effort to teach their children,
when they're filling out the bill, right.
We don't write checks no more, all that is done by the banks
but to teach them them skills as well.
It shouldn't always fall,
I agree with Home Ec in the classroom,
but it also becomes a parent's obligation,
like, you know, here we're gonna apply for a mortgage,
you need more, explain this stuff to the kids.
Here let's cook together, family time,
we can boil water together.
Agreed, agreed. You know.
We're not disagreeing, all I'm sayin'
not every parent has the luxury of doin' it.
Some parents, kids don't have parents,
some parents are working two and three jobs.
So three percent of the kids,
that's a very small percentage.
I don't agree with you,
I think in a lot of communities.
Oh good, you don't agree with me.
There are parents who work
two and three jobs and are not at home.
I think fundamentally we agree,
but I'm taking about those kids
that don't have parents home at all.
Well if they're not at home,
when do they have time for family time?
Well maybe they're at work,
maybe they're trying to pay the bills
and keep a roof over their head.
Here. That's the reality
for some American families.
This is what I think.
I think that it should be reinforced,
in multiple domains.
We all need repeated exposure to really learn something.
So parents can teach it, schools can teach it,
and if they have any role models, and mentors can teach it.
Mentors can teach it.
We really just need to make sure that when they
graduate high school, because for a lot of people,
they don't necessarily go on to formal universities
after that. Or even two-year college.
So we wanna make sure that in high school,
they get those skills, that when they turn 18,
they know how to do their own laundry.
And boil water Please.
And write a check, and balance a checkbook.
Absolutely.
I believe our children are our future.
Teach them well and let them lead the way, okay?