Giving Compass' Take:

• Educators have been debating whether home economics courses that focus on basic life skills and financial literacy should be mandatory courses in high schools. 

• How would increased rates of financial literacy among young people affect the charitable giving space? 

• Read more about college students and financial literacy. 

Educators are weighing in on Twitter regarding the debate over whether students should be learning basic skills — including cooking or doing laundry — at school or at home, The Washington Post reports. The recent string of comments began with University of Virginia cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, who posted his response to a Forbes story: “Five Things High Schoolers Need To Know More Than Computer Science.”

There's sharp disagreement over what the job of a school entails — and how far schools' duties stretch beyond typical academic disciplines. Willingham's post indicates that he thinks students should be learning these skills at home, but others noted that sometimes, students might not have the role models or resources needed to learn these life skills.

In addition, some districts already aim to equip students with non-academic skills, and the rise of community schools continues to emphasize a more holistic way to support students.

A well-rounded education should include the ability to calculate, write well and have a sense and understanding of the world at large. But students who have not also mastered basic life skills — such as cooking a meal, cleaning their room or knowing how to care for themselves — may graduate from school, but not be able to matriculate, easily, into their next project: adulthood.

Yet, these home economics courses are slowly disappearing, as Education Dive has recently reported. In some cases, though, students have expressed regret, that after they went on to college, they wish they had been taught some of these life skills, particularly those around developing financial literacy.

Read the full article about schools teaching basic life skills by Lauren Barack at Education Dive