Let’s redo curriculum for kids now

I AM not embarrassed to say I loved my time at high school.

I loved the classes and the content, and I spent a lot of time and energy on getting good grades. Many hours of were spent memorising the elements of the periodic table and bending my English-minded brain to understand algebra — to name a few — and still, I am yet to experience a real life situation that requires either.

And it had me thinking about the many things they could have taught at school that would be more use to me than Pythagoras theorem will. TAXES: A pointer or two on how to pay them and more, importantly, how to claim money back would go a long way. No one tells you what receipts to keep, how long to keep them, how to do your return or how much you should pay to have someone else do it. HOUSES: How about a little less poetry, a little more property? The next generation is more eager to know how much you need to save for a deposit, what stamp duty means, what to do if you want to bid at an auction and the pros and cons of flexible and fixed rate loans. BUDGETS: After the golden years of living under your parents’ roof and eating all their food, how do you work out what percentage of your wage should be spent on rent, bills, groceries and fun stuff? JOBS: “How to get the experience everyone wants graduates to have, but no one ever wants to give them” — that’s a class few would wag. No doubt there would be questions about when to remove your part-time jobs and schools from your resume, what is “networking” and how do I answer the dreaded “so tell me about yourself” question?

HANDWRITING: This one is covered early but if you don’t nail it by the time the pen licences are thrown around, you’re stuck with what you’ve got. In an age of computers and iPads, handwriting is a dying art that haunts me every time I have to write a birthday card.

ONLINE: There are kids whose future employers will have access to their baby photos because their parents posted snaps online before they could object. Let’s tell the next generation where the stuff you post lives and for how long.

And while we’re at it, let’s add how to vote, change a tyre, get a passport and navigate the health care system to the list.

After all, what’s the point of being a straight-A student between 12 and 18 if you’re a flunk at life through your 20s?