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Hammond Creek Middle School students in Dalton, Georgia, were asked what topics they think should be taught in school that currently are not taught to students.

The answers varied from fashion and taxes to survival skills.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Adrian Mendiola: What’s something schools should teach but they don’t is—I think schools should teach but they don’t is how to drive standard cars and trucks. This would be important to learn this because what if people that would like a standard car or truck when they will be able to drive? It would help me in the real world. When I get older I would like to drive a standard truck or car. I mostly want a Honda or a truck.

Angel Astrain Garcia: I think school should be teaching how to survive in a wild place. This can be helpful because we never know when something can happen to us and go to a wild survival place and they need to teach us how to make fires, houses, how to hunt and fish so you can survive in a hunting place. And they should teach us how to make houses, how to use a compass to be able to survive in a wild place.

Ariella Martinez: How to help someone when they are choking—just learning safety in general. For my understanding more students will have a better understanding of to do in these moments not to panic. The last question is how would it help you in life or in the real world and I respond with: to be prepared for anything major.

Eliana Torres: I think that something that should be taught in school but isn’t currently being taught to students and everyone is life insurance. Life insurance is something really important that we must all know about later on for our futures. Just say if a car accident comes up randomly, you’re going to need some car insurance to help you recover your car and pay all the money to make sure it’s ready to go and fixed, but if you don’t have car insurance then you’re going to have to pay money out of your pocket with no help. Life insurance is going to be a big impact in your life later on. This is something that you must know about later on for your future.

Emily Ramirez: Schools should teach how to manage money. It would be important because it would teach us how to manage our money and not get into debt because we spend it on something useless. Learning to manage money would help me with saving money and spending it on useful stuff that are necessary and having money in case of an emergency.

Enrique Francisco: I think one thing that schools don’t teach and they should teach is to start a business. To be able to make good money and to have a career. It would teach a lot of fundamental basics like how to invest in stocks and how to do much better things, because you will have to manage stuff more. But then it would be easier because you will gain a lot more money in a faster way without having to work a lot of hours, and put in lots of effort and you will be able to get a lot of money easily.

Ivan Perales: I think schools should teach students how to cook. I think they should teach students how to cook because they can't always be eating out. Maybe if you don't get paid enough, then you need to learn how to cook, so it won't be as expensive as fast food.

Joanna Bethel: Something I think should be taught in school that isn’t is–well they should teach fashion. I know it sounds a little weird, but what do we wear for different occasions? Why would this be important? So we know what to wear for a job interview, a wedding, school. Why would it help us in real life situations? People would look more put together, will be treated nicer, and may get the job they want.

Laileigh Mitchell: Something I think school should teach is survival skills—and you might be asking why should we learn this. Well because it can help with everyday life like cooking and just things that you do everyday. The way it could help in the real world is if you get stranded on land or something and you have those skills so you know what to do.

Michael Lazo: I think schools should teach survival skills, because survival skills help you live. With survivals skills, you can help people through things while they’re younger or they get lost like in the woods or the forest. I feel like survival skills will be the best thing to teach at schools.

Michelle Saldana: I believe that schools should start teaching kids about healthcare because healthcare is really important and you have to take care of yourself to live and be healthy.

Nahla Jackson: I think schools should teach filing taxes, because it is important for us to know how to do it because on April 15th you will have to do it and if you don’t know how to do it, you will not be able to do it.

Naomi Adams: One reason why I think schools should teach cooking is because if you don't know how to cook you should definitely know how to cook, so that you can make your own food whenever you live by yourself at some point. And just in general, you need food and water to survive, so if you don’t know how to cook your own food that could be a problem if your parents aren't home and you're hungry, and there's not anything for you to eat you would have to cook something. That would be a good skill to learn for basic needs.

Nataly Corona: Something that I think should be taught in school that isn’t is about more careers. It will be important to learn so that people have a better understanding of different careers—not just the basic ones that everyone is already aware of. This will help your in life because people will know jobs like firefighters, doctors, police officers, and way more but there are still more jobs that people do not know of yet.

Osciel Moreno: My thing that schools should learn about is fixing cars so like if a person needs to fix their car, you don’t have to call your dad or go to the mechanic if you have the tools. You can help strangers on the side of the road that need help. Schools should learn about fixing cars so they can do a career about fixing cars or be a mechanic—work at a dealership. Or even doing car [modifications]. You can buy parts for your car if you need them like modifying your car to make it faster, quieter—you can even repair the engine, spare plugs, the oil.

Samuel Mendez: In my opinion, I think schools should teach taxes because one day we’re all going to do it and we’re not going to know how to do it because schools don’t teach it. And what if we get in trouble by the [IRS] because if we don’t pay it, what are we going to do? So yeah, schools should teach how to do taxes.

Tala Bikhit: In school, I think that we should be learning about doing taxes, because whenever we grow up, we're gonna need to learn to do taxes. And we would have to pay someone to do our taxes because we don't know how to do it. If start learning it in school, then whenever we're older we will be able to do it and it will be much easier for us.

Taylor Amonett: I think my school system should add AG, also known as agriculture. Agriculture is something that runs in 4-H and FFA and our county does have a 4-H but they do not have a FFA. A lot of the counties touching Dalton do have an agriculture program that runs with the school, but Dalton does not have one.