Required knowledge

[gwywnnydd]

Been thinking about what knowledge should be required for all humans above the age of, say, 15. Basic stuff. Stuff like:
How to sew a button back on.
How to cook a meal (doesn't need to be fancy, does need to represent the food pyramid appropriately. Does not involve setting the kitchen on fire).
How to make dirty clothes become clean clothes (known as 'doing laundry')
How to keep one's living space from becoming a health hazard.
How to change a flat tire.
How to change the oil in a vehicle, and how often this should happen.
How to open a bank account.
How to balance a check book
Emergency first aid (beyond the current Red Cross curriculum of "don't touch, stay back, call an ambulance").

More as more occurs to me.

Comments

more:

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

how to pay bills
how to say "no" when something does not sound like you need or want it
how to read a map
how to find assistance in a public place (for example: getting a jump from security at the mall, finding a bathroom at an office tower, this sort of thing)
how to shop for groceries (especially fresh stuff - fruit, vegetables, meats)
how to iron a shirt and a pair of pants
how to use a card catalog at a library
How to change a fuse in a fuse box
How to reset an electrical breaker
How to relight a pilot light on a water heater
How to use the "clean" setting on an oven (without burning the kitchen down)
How to make a nice cup of tea
How to ask for things you acutally *need* (physically and emotionally)
How to connect things to, and disconnect things from your television (cable, game boxes, vcrs, dvds, stereos)
How to write a check (possibly in with balancing a checkbook)
How to write a formal letter
How to tell time using the sun
How to make non-potable water into potable water in the wilderness (in case of extreme emergency)

more as they come to us. :) Great list btw. Ooooo check you out, thinking like a PARENT!!! ooooo getting all MOM on us. :D YAY!!!

Re: more:

[gwywnnydd.livejournal.com]

Many of these were things I swore ages ago my kids would know how to do. I was apalled at the level of domestic helplessness I saw in most of my male peers, and I wont allow my children to be that helpless :).

Re: more:

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

hallelujah!!

yeah, many of these I have from:
-myself not knowing them when I moved away on my own and having to learn them the hard way
-friends I have known not knowing them until *I* taught them
-things i have observed people doing

egad.

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

On financial matters, I find that many more people are deficient on why to balance a checkbook than on how. And even more so on why to save money.

[lawst.livejournal.com]

How to say please and thank you, as well as use other forms of good manners.
How to wash themselves.
How to eat with utinsils (a thing I see many adults doign inproperly).
How to wipe their ass.
How to take care of their teeth.
How to use their edit buttons when appropriate.