Back to School: Classes They Should Offer

We’ve got a week of school under our belts and everyone seems to be reasonably happy with teachers, classes and the homework schedule.  It is interesting to me to see which schools/principals/teachers are utilizing email and social media and which ones still aren’t sure how to turn a computer on.  When you think about it, that’s really kind of scary that these are the people in charge of educating our kids.

It is hard to complain though when the thought of home schooling can send me running for cover in a closet.  So, “Dear School Administrators” don’t think of this as a complaint but rather as free consulting and advice that executives and corporations usually pay me large amounts of money for – here is a list of classes administrators should consider adding  to curriculums everywhere:

• Proper Writing This is so much more important than ‘teaching to the test” every year.  High school seniors and college students are quickly losing the ability to write, spell and use punctuation properly.  These skills effect how others, including employers, think of you.  LOL ain’t gonna cut it dude.
• Finance Only spend what you have and credit cards are evil.  Don’t go into debt and learn to save your money and pay cash for things.  I highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness as the text book for this class.  We all need to learn that instant gratification (i.e. “no money down”) is not a right.
• Ethics You know right from wrong.  The stories of Bernie Madoff, Enron and Stanford Financial would make good case studies for this class.  That along with a field trip to a federal prison would be a lovely lesson.
• Social Media This class would also be required for school district administrators and all teachers.  There has been a fundamental shift in the way we communicate all over the world.  You must know how it works and learn to utilize it in many forms.  It is how your students communicate.  Watch the Socialnomics video.  Most school districts are blocking teachers and employees from sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  Wake up!  You can’t control the information anymore.  Resistance is futile.  I highly recommend you hire @skydiver on Twitter to create the curriculum for this class.  And you definitely can’t control him….
• Charity Call it what you will but karma is a very powerful force in life and in business.  One of the most important things you can do is to do something for another without expecting anything in return.  That’s when it all comes back to you. That’s karma.  As a part of this class, each high school student would be required to spend at least one summer in an Outward Bound or other charity program helping others.
• Cell Phone Etiquette I don’t care what you did last night and who you did it with.  Or where.  Or when you plan to do it again.  In addition, when you are driving, I’d just as soon you put that mobile phone in the trunk.  YouTube says this video is too graphic for anyone under 18.  I say make it required at least once a week in this class for anyone with a drivers license – student or teacher or parent.
• Discipline This would be a joint class between all age students and their parents.  Should either fail, both groups would be required to take the class together until an acceptable grade or level of discipline was achieved by all ages.
• Manners See Discipline.  Same applies.
• Networking Otherwise known as “Getting Along With Others 101.”  Students would learn to listen to what others were saying and actually pay attention to it.  They would also be taught not to send mass emails and pull out a business card everywhere they go.  The ultimate goal of this class would be to teach the importance of true relationships with other humans, whether personal or business.
• Current Events This class would be required prior to taking Networking.  You must know what is going on the world, in everything, in order to succeed.  And when you have a clue what is going on in the world around you, it makes you a much more interesting person to be around and people will have a tendency to ‘network’ with you.  No one wants to hang out with a tree stump.

Just the mere thought of going back to school is enough to make me do my best to adhere to these principles each and every day.  And as for you school administrators who need some help turning on your computer, I can be reached at dayna@daynasteele.com or on Twitter @daynasteele.

Tagged as: Appreciation, back to school, common sense, Knowledge, manners, Networking, Passion, Social Media