Schools still teach basics like math, science, history and English, but there are plenty of old-school classes kids today will never take
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Typing
You recall days of plugging “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” into a keyboard or even on a typewriter again and again. Nowadays, kids’ fingers get enough flexing from texting and typing on their tablets and laptops. Many of them can type at lightning speeds without any training and know how to use technology before they can even talk.
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Home economics
Your son or daughter won’t be donning an apron during the school day anytime soon. Cooking, cleaning, hygiene and other family-oriented classes are few and far between at high schools around the United States. Some schools still teach it under names like Family and Consumer Sciences, but you won’t find the old familiar Home Ec.
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Penmanship
Remember the hours spent dutifully practicing handwriting at your desk or the chalkboard? Maybe you even received a penmanship award! No longer, at least not in the same way. Many schools shunned cursive instruction altogether in the 2010s as more tech-heavy classes took root, making this one of the clearest examples of old-school classes kids don’t take today.
But cursive might be making a comeback! In 2023, California started requiring the lost art again in first through sixth grade. Other states followed suit, and 24 states currently require some form of cursive instruction (up from only 14 in 2016).
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Latin
Being able to study Latin as your second language in high school used to be commonplace in the ’60s and ’70s. Over time, it slowly started to disappear from schools, and students were only given the option to study French or Spanish. Since Latin is no longer spoken, it’s hard to find teachers to teach the subject—and students who want to learn it.
That said, this isn’t one of those old-school classes kids don’t take today anywhere. Some schools still teach it, and many students take it in hopes of improving their SAT scores.
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Shop
No, this wasn’t a class that taught you how to shop online. Students in the past took shop (short for workshop) classes to learn basic carpentry and mechanical skills. Can you imagine the waiver parents would have to sign today if their children were working with saws and hammers? It would never happen. Schools want the curriculum to focus on improving test scores rather than learning new trades, but some schools are working to combine the two by incorporating technology, such as 3D printers, into their shop classes.
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Library
Schools today still have libraries, but they’re filled with more computers than books. You were probably given multiple lessons on how to navigate the Dewey Decimal System to find the exact book you wanted. Now, students are able to find information a lot faster using a quick internet search.
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Life skills
Kids might leave high school knowing how to find the square root of an imaginary number, but they don’t know basic life skills, such as setting a budget, navigating student debt once they get out of college and taking out a mortgage for a house. These basic skills used to be part of the high school curriculum, but it isn’t seen in many schools today.
However, people are starting to realize the importance of learning life skills at a young age, and some schools are starting “adulting” classes that teach you about budgeting, time management, how to handle conflict in a relationship and many more useful topics.
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Sources:
- HuffPost: “Who Killed Home Ec? Here’s The Real Story Behind Its Demise”
- Education Week: “The Number of States That Require Schools to Teach Cursive Is Growing”
- The 74: “50 Years After Latin Disappeared From High School Classrooms, These Educators Are Bringing It Back”
- CBS News: “‘Adulting’ classes teach millennials basic skills like sewing, cooking and how to deal with relationships”
- The Atlantic: “The Future of Shop Class”
