If I had a dollar for every time I asked this question while in school, well, let's just say I would have had a lot more spending money in my teen years. I bet you thought much of the same during your high school/college/university days? More and more it is being made clear that today's education curriculum's are missing the mark(1) in getting students ready for everyday life. Students are exiting their education years scrambling to #adult in today's world, learning valuable lessons through trial and error at a time when it has the ability to make a significant impact on their future. Many parents are baffled by the lack of real-world skills(2) in today's young adults and people are beginning to wonder where it is all going wrong. 

 

To say that I only just came up with the P.E.R.T. Curriculum™ would not be entirely true. While it is something that I designed within the last year, it really has been a work in progress over decades. The topics found within the curriculum are all those which I identified throughout my life; ones which I wished I was introduced to and taught at an earlier age.

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As an entrepreneur without a formal, post-secondary education, I had to learn quickly the skills to navigate life on my own while simultaneously learning the in's and out's of business, all in a sink or swim scenario. Often I asked myself, "why didn't they teach us this in school?". I asked the same question in more practical ways as well like, "how do I build long-lasting relationships, think critically, manage my emotions, or even change a tire!" All of these skills would have helped me immensely, much more than the time spent learning to graph a parabola or build a model aqueduct!

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Once I had kids, I began to really ponder the kind of education I wanted them to have. Despite their attendance in one of the best private schools in our area, I couldn't get past the fact that they were learning subjects which I felt wasted the precious time we had to grow and mold them. On top of that, as my youngest struggled with reading and writing, I saw that without one-on-one help in those subjects he would only continue to fall behind, ultimately failing to benefit from the lessons he was being taught.

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It was then that I decided to pull my boys out of school and teach them at home. Not one to follow the status quo, I scrapped our provincial curriculum and created my own, which was made up of everything I felt, they needed to learn over the course of the next 8-10 years. I made a list the skills that I needed as an adult, wife, business owner, employee, friend, mother, and citizen. I also spoke to many within our network to get their opinion on any topics they felt that I had missed. The list was exhaustive, from cooking skills to making a budget; understanding nutrition to knowing one's individual personality style. Once it was completed, I felt confident that should by kids only learn these topics, they would be able to conduct themselves appropriately, take on challenges effectively, and navigate the world confidently going forward.

 

So, 170+ topics later, each falling under one of fourteen categories, I put together what I now call the "P.E.R.T. Curriculum™". The categories and topics which make up the curriculum have been chosen for their practicality and relevance, as well as their ability to be "experienced" by and tailored for the student. P.E.R.T. stands for: Practical, Experiential, Relevant and Tailored, and if the topics did not meet these basic requirements, they didn't make it on the list.

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Our goal for the P.E.R.T. Curriculum™ is to provide parents with an exhaustive directory of the skills, knowledge, experiences and competencies that will be necessary for their children to engage, navigate, and succeed in life. With a checklist to move forward, parents can take advantage of lessons and studies from affiliate organizations using the P.E.R.T. Curriculum™ as their foundation, seek relevant lessons online, or within their community. Whether homeschooling or supplementing a child's traditional education, the P.E.R.T. Curriculum™ can be tailored to fit the schedule, resources and commitment to whomever takes it on. The hope is that once a child has completed the curriculum and can demonstrate understanding and a mastering of the topics,  they will be ready to launch into our great, big world.

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(1) Does college prepare kids for the real world?, Eric Duffy, CEO of Pathfinder, www.forbes.com

(2) How school trains us to fail in the real world, The Mission Podcasts, www.medium.com