♪ (industrial music) ♪

♪ (synthpop music) ♪

- "Don't Stay in School"?

- Cool hair.

- ♪ I wasn't taught how to get a job ♪

♪ But I can remember dissecting a frog ♪

♪ I wasn't taught how to pay tax ♪

♪ But I know loads about Shakespeare's classics ♪

♪ I was never taught how to vote ♪

♪ They devoted that time... ♪

- I have to say, I wouldn't have expected

this awesome level of rapping from a guy that looks like that.

- ♪ I was never taught what laws there are ♪

♪ Let me repeat ♪ - True.

- There should be a law against that here.

- ♪ But I know how Henry VIII killed his women ♪

- This is great.

- ♪ Igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks ♪

♪ Yet I don't know squat about trading stocks ♪

♪ Or how money works at all ♪

♪ Where does it come from? ♪

- I know. I didn't learn about money.

- ♪ ...the world function? ♪

♪ Didn't learn how much it costs to raise a kid ♪

♪ Or what an affidavit is ♪

♪ But I spent days on what the quadratic equation is ♪

♪ Negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared ♪

♪ Minus 4ac over 2a ♪

♪ That's insane, that's absolutely insane ♪

- It's insane?

- ♪ They made me learn that over basic first aid ♪

- No life application, yeah.

- ♪ ...the most deadly mental disorders ♪

♪ Or diseases with preventable causes ♪ - Wow.

- ♪ Or how to buy a how with a mortgage ♪

♪ If I could afford it ♪

♪ 'Cause abstract maths was deemed more important ♪

- Yeah, we need to think more about what we're teaching,

absolutely.

- ♪ But it's cool, 'cause now I could tell you ♪

♪ If the number of unnecessary deaths ♪

♪ Caused by that choice was prime ♪

- (chuckles) Nice.

- ♪ Or how to help my depressed friend with their mental state? ♪

- This is sad.

- ♪ But learn mental maths ♪

♪ Because you won't have a calculator with you every day ♪

- (chuckles) - ♪ They say it's not the kids ♪

♪ The parents are the problem ♪

♪ Then if you taught the kids to parent ♪

♪ That's the problem solved then ♪ - Yeah.

- ♪ I'm only fluent in this language, for serious? ♪

♪ The rest of the world speaks two ♪

♪ Do you think I'm an idiot? ♪

- (amused) This guy has got a lot on his mind.

- ♪ But I won't take it ♪

♪ I'll tell everyone my childhood was wasted ♪

- Man, he's mad.

- ♪ I'll share it everywhere how I was "educated" ♪

- Wow. - ♪ And insist ♪

♪ These pointless things, don't stay in school ♪

- (impressed) Oh. Nice.

- That was amazing! (laughs)

- (discouraged) No.

That's what I do. I teach.

- I have three kids that have already graduated from high school.

And it wasn't until after the fact that I'm like,

"Okay, wow, they really don't know about real world."

♪ (industrial music) ♪

- (Finebros) So have you ever thought about

what this guy was saying about education?

- Not until recently-- not until now, actually.

- Every day as a teacher.

I keep saying, "How am I gonna translate into real life?"

- As a teacher right now,

we see people really teaching to the test.

And I know that my students are very frustrated with it.

- No one ever taught me how to write a check

or how to balance a checkbook.

You just learn that by trial and error.

- They don't teach us about taxes.

You don't teach about responsibilities.

They don't teach us about our credit.

They teach us old things like the math-- like he was saying,

that math with all the square and the b and all that.

We don't do that!

- (Finebros) So do you agree with his statement?

- Not the overall statement, like "don't stay in school."

But I get it as far as school is one outlet of knowledge source.

- The problem is there's a lot of information out there.

In order to get what that guy was after,

you would have to have kids in school for 12 hours a day.

- I think it's important. I think we need to offer kids more

in the way of technical education, like vocational education.

- We do focus a lot on testing

and not so much on real-life applications.

So our kids end up really confused when they graduate.

- (Finebros) And what level of school are your children at?

- My oldest is gonna be a senior this year.

- My own kids are in middle school.

- I only have one left in high school.

- My son is going to the sixth grade.

My daughter's going to the ninth grade.

- My oldest is in college.

And then my youngest is gonna be a junior in high school.

- My daughter is gonna be going to 11th grade.

(hushed) Oh gosh, I'm so old.

- (Finebros) And overall, what do you think

about the curriculum that they're learning?

- I think it's really good.

- Some of it is good. You know, some of it is okay.

- I feel like he's gotten a good education.

- Could be a lot better.

- It's okay.

We do need to reassess the way that we look at education

and what we're teaching.

- The curriculum that they're learning is pretty much academics,

and it's like the video.

This is not really what they're gonna take with them

when they leave school.

- (Finebros) When you look back at your own education,

do you feel it prepared you for life? - Yes, actually.

The math part, because of what I do for a living.

I'm a machinist.

- The best things that I learned in school was to read and write.

And I've been told over and over again

that if I can write well and communicate with people,

that that would really serve me well in the real world.

- It helps me remember random questions on Jeopardy!

- I got a lot of math, got a lot of reading.

But regards to the social skills,

things like-- literally you hear about it--

balancing your checkbook-- those kinds of things I didn't get.

- I didn't learn a lot of stuff that I wish I would.

I'm learning from my kids now.

The school never prepared me for that.

- Well, it didn't prepare me on how to get a job.

I don't remember the class of, "How to get hired."

(giggles) Don't remember that class.

- (Finebros) Why do you think

we aren't teaching these things in school?

- They just want the kids to learn the basics,

get 'em in, get 'em out.

- They don't want to complicate it. They don't have the time.

- It's really, really difficult when you are just asking

for the entire system to be completely changed.

- They feel like it's not important,

but they don't understand that it is important.

- The state educations is getting enough money from our taxes

to be able to provide more than what they're providing right now.

- In order for my kids to take certain classes,

they had to take extra classes.

Those are electives. It's not required,

'cause they're focusing more on the reading and writing,

which, of course, is important. But it's not teaching them

about what's happening on CNN when they watch the news.

- Because we're so concerned

about test taking and scores for schools.

We have to change the mentality of how we think in education.

There is plenty of time to teach kids how to be good citizens

and how to contribute to the society

and the communities around them.

- (clang!) - (Finebros) Truth!

Other people would say that the school is for academics,

and the responsibility lies with the parents for life lessons

and things of that nature. Do you agree with that statement?

- I think it's a partnership.

- I think there could be a balance to it.

You can't just let the school teach 'em everything.

- If you had that life course at school,

and kids were coming home talking about that life course

and bringing up that stuff to your parents--

I believe it's a joint effort.

- I think that it's the parents' responsibility ultimately.

But I also feel that the school--

with regards to the reading, writing, and arithmetic--

those three things are not good enough.

- (Finebros) So do you think that your children

are properly prepared for everything in the world

off of their schooling? - Yes, I do.

- I hope so.

- No.

-No.

- There are some things that you're not gonna be able

to teach children by talking to them.

They're gonna have to be put into it.

- Actually, looking at that video now,

I want to impart as much knowledge as I can

and let them know about the mistakes that I made.

- (Finebros) So back to the video,

he decided to call his song "Don't Stay in School."

What do you think about that choice of a title?

- Oh, I hate it. (chuckles) I hate it.

- Gives the wrong message to some kids that,

"Hey, why should I go to school,

where I can learn this outside of school?"

- He's just being over the top.

Every kid knows, you have to go to school.

- I think that it's kind of a shock value.

It's just like, "What do you mean, 'Don't stay in school'?

That's just..." you know.

And then you want to click on the video.

You want to see what the hell they're talking about.

- I want my own kids to watch that video.

I'm gonna search for that one,

(cracking up) and I'm gonna show it to my kids today.

- It's okay, because I'm pretty sure, after seeing that,

he wasn't really trying to say, "Ditch out of school."

- (Finebros) So this was made by a young person

that started a whole conversation about education

between both students and adults.

Were you aware that these types of deeper conversations

end up happening thanks to a YouTube video?

- Not at all. I've been fighting with my daughter over YouTube.

I love that side of YouTube. I'm actually now thinking,

we could just educate our students more with that.

- With the existence of YouTube, I had to find a peace with it,

and I do bring it into my class.

They enjoy seeing something,

if you talk about, from the real world.

- It's amazing how they empower themselves with YouTube.

YouTube is powerful.

- (Finebros) So last question: what is something

you think should change in the current education system for kids

that you think will help them enter in the real world?

- More real-life situations that kids are prepared for.

- Maybe they should put something that's life skills.

- The whole life class. I think that's super important.

- I think that their senior year should be really a chance

for them to start to explore careers.

- I wish there was just a little bit more leeway.

Kids don't all learn the same.

They don't want to open your dusty books.

But if the same exact information and facts

were put in a different way,

I think they're more open to it.

- Let's leave our obsession with competing with the world

over test scores.

We have more scientists in our society.

Let's focus on creating those people,

not test takers in this country.

- Thanks for watching the first episode of Parents React.

- In the comments below,