I was first exposed to the concept of “Life Skills” in the late 80s. An human resources professional, I had been laid off from a company that was downsizing and took a government-sponsored job search workshop. Hired right out of college in the early 70s, I had never had to actually look for a job. So, what could it hurt? Once again, I didn’t have to look for a job because the workshop leader took an immediate liking to me and referred me to a local community college where another government-sponsored program was helping employment-disadvantaged youth enter or re-enter the workforce. The name of the Ontario Liberal program was “Futures”. It was an excellent 16 weeks of classroom life skills, resume writing, and job search methods as well as one-on-one counselling followed by and additional 16 week job placement where the government paid half the salary. The success rate was good, but change in local government removed the funding and the program died.
While the concept originated earlier, Life Skills Training became popular in Ontario in the 70s first at the YWCA, then community colleges and the YMCA. In the late 80s I found myself sitting across from a somewhat crochety older man who gave me a binder of life skills topics and lessons to quickly review. The topics were things like personal hygiene, decision making, expressing empathy, and anger management. He then asked, “Based your background in office management and human resources, do you think you could write some that were more geared toward the workplace?” Game on. I replied, “Absolutely!” And so I was hired as a teacher/counsellor who wrote general workplace-oriented life skills lessons on an old typewriter in an empty room in the basement and once they were approved by the manager, would then teach the lesson. After the term, as I was part-time (what the colleges used to refer to as partial-load), I found a new Futures Program gig at a YMCA; then another at Centennial College, and one at Seneca and then Sheridan. Doing the short-term rounds in the Greater Toronto Area kept me gainfully employed for 5 years before I returned to the private sector. There were several teachers who did the same, and we’d periodically meet up at different workplaces sharing new Life Skills Lessons.
And, of course, while sharing we also shared our theories on which ones were best, why they were needed, reactions from the clientele (16 through 24 year-olds) who were “employment disadvantaged”. What does that mean? Well, there were a number of categories and the physical numbers depended on the geographical area and by whom they were referred. At one location, it seemed most of them were immigrants who had taken and ESL course at the same location. At another location it seemed most of the participants were one step away from prison – in fact a couple had been referred by a judge, as in either you complete the Futures Program or you go to jail. At another, it seemed that each kid was just really poor. It didn’t seem to matter what the reason, we all believed they just weren’t getting the parenting they needed.
Every now and then the topic of Life Skills comes up on the news or social media and I wonder, “Why don’t they teach them in high school?” Sigh. Yesterday, was municipal voting day where I live in Windsor, Ontario. At the pole, a young man who was clearly voting for the first time, while staring at his ballot, asked the pole worker, “Is there no information available about these candidates?” He didn’t know the process! She replied, “No, you’re supposed to do your own research before you come to the poll. You can sit down over there and look them up on your phone.” Ouch. I felt uncomfortable for both of them. First, he should have known that he needed to research the candidates and at the polling stations everyone needs to be unbiased and are not allowed to discuss any of them. Second, she should have been a little more detailed and explained that it’s the law. The way she said it was almost condescending. What an excellent Life Skills Lesson Plan: How to research political candidates and how to vote.
I’m planning on sending this to the local school board trustees who won here in Windsor yesterday. Maybe someone will pick up the quest to add Life Skills to the curriculum, because parents are teaching kids this stuff like our parents did.
