Strange habits you have

[texaskdog]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

[texaskdog]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Back in the day basic skills like home finance were part of home ec classes. Mine didn't really cover it–they mostly taught cooking, sewing, and abstinence-only sex ed.

I think a basic financial literacy class would probably serve the public better than one of the advanced calculus or trig classes. Cut one of those and make Finance mandatory to graduate instead. But of course it serves the big corporations better if nobody knows how interest works or how to avoid going into debt, so that's the real reason we don't teach that in school.

Applying for a job would be a kind of pointless class to teach. You can teach basic resume-writing skills as part of an English class, but the actual procedure for applying for jobs varies so much from company to company, and any more you don't even get an interview without your resume and/or cover letter scoring highly on whatever sort of algorithm the company uses to "grade" resumes. There's no good way to teach any of that.

I'm 52 and still not good at writing a resume or even good places to start applying for jobs.  I've fallen into every job I've ever had. 

[Roadgeekteen]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I was learning self-defense in gym class when covid shut the world down causing the unit to be cancelled.

[texaskdog]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I was learning self-defense in gym class when covid shut the world down causing the unit to be cancelled.

FEAR of Covid shut the world down

[Roadgeekteen]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I was learning self-defense in gym class when covid shut the world down causing the unit to be cancelled.

FEAR of Covid shut the world down

Didn't learn self defense against covid.

[Scott5114]

I'm 52 and still not good at writing a resume or even good places to start applying for jobs.  I've fallen into every job I've ever had. 

A class probably wouldn't do you much good other than on the resume front. The places companies post jobs varies from industry to industry or even city to city as various job-posting websites add features and get more or less popular. If you know of a specific company you want to work at they usually have a Careers page on their website. If you just want to apply for everything that's available you'll have to check some combination of Monster, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, or even Facebook to find everything. It's not like the old days when it's all on the classifieds job page.

[jakeroot]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I guess your view of "life in the world" is slightly different than my own. The way I see it, schools provide you with lots of knowledge in many different areas (human science courses included!) but the real world is not just fixing cars and defending one's self. Schools assist in teaching you what you want to do in life, and provide you with the knowledge and skills to go and work in an infinite number of fields, or even to continue into an undergrad, grad, or doctorate degree. School is not just teaching you basic life skills like car repair and budgeting. After all, those things are for people with jobs, and you need knowledge and skills to get a job, and a bunch of home-ec courses won't get you those things.

I'm not saying that courses like self-defense or car repair are worthless (they might come in handy but honestly, probably not, especially the latter given how unfriendly modern cars are to non-technicians), but I do think those are things that parents can teach their kids, and going to school should be about learning skills and developing knowledge that I don't think every parent possesses.

[jakeroot]

Back in the day basic skills like home finance were part of home ec classes. Mine didn't really cover it–they mostly taught cooking, sewing, and abstinence-only sex ed.

I think a basic financial literacy class would probably serve the public better than one of the advanced calculus or trig classes. Cut one of those and make Finance mandatory to graduate instead. But of course it serves the big corporations better if nobody knows how interest works or how to avoid going into debt, so that's the real reason we don't teach that in school.

Applying for a job would be a kind of pointless class to teach. You can teach basic resume-writing skills as part of an English class, but the actual procedure for applying for jobs varies so much from company to company, and any more you don't even get an interview without your resume and/or cover letter scoring highly on whatever sort of algorithm the company uses to "grade" resumes. There's no good way to teach any of that.

Hmm, abstinence-only sex ed is definitely not the way of the game around here! I learned quite a lot in 5th grade.

A basic finance course may not be useless, but could it possibly be stretched out over ten weeks or whatever? I just don't see how it can't be rolled into any other home-ec courses (three weeks sex ed, four weeks budgeting, two weeks defensive driving, etc). Advanced calc or trig usually isn't a requirement for graduation (the furthest I went was pre-calc), but I think basic geometry and algebra are quite helpful whether we realize it or not; physics is particularly important when it comes to maneuvering a vehicle!

[jemacedo9]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I guess your view of "life in the world" is slightly different than my own. The way I see it, schools provide you with lots of knowledge in many different areas (human science courses included!) but the real world is not just fixing cars and defending one's self. Schools assist in teaching you what you want to do in life, and provide you with the knowledge and skills to go and work in an infinite number of fields, or even to continue into an undergrad, grad, or doctorate degree. School is not just teaching you basic life skills like car repair and budgeting. After all, those things are for people with jobs, and you need knowledge and skills to get a job, and a bunch of home-ec courses won't get you those things.

I'm not saying that courses like self-defense or car repair are worthless (they might come in handy but honestly, probably not, especially the latter given how unfriendly modern cars are to non-technicians), but I do think those are things that parents can teach their kids, and going to school should be about learning skills and developing knowledge that I don't think every parent possesses.

Why does it have to be one or the other? 

Why not both "knowledge of different areas" AND "real world skills"?

And what happens when parents don't teach their kids those things that you say they should?  Because many don't.  And that's not the kid's fault. They just get left to fend for themselves?  Is it a bad thing to make sure it's covered somehow?

[Roadgeekteen]

Back in the day basic skills like home finance were part of home ec classes. Mine didn't really cover it–they mostly taught cooking, sewing, and abstinence-only sex ed.

I think a basic financial literacy class would probably serve the public better than one of the advanced calculus or trig classes. Cut one of those and make Finance mandatory to graduate instead. But of course it serves the big corporations better if nobody knows how interest works or how to avoid going into debt, so that's the real reason we don't teach that in school.

Applying for a job would be a kind of pointless class to teach. You can teach basic resume-writing skills as part of an English class, but the actual procedure for applying for jobs varies so much from company to company, and any more you don't even get an interview without your resume and/or cover letter scoring highly on whatever sort of algorithm the company uses to "grade" resumes. There's no good way to teach any of that.

Hmm, abstinence-only sex ed is definitely not the way of the game around here! I learned quite a lot in 5th grade.

A basic finance course may not be useless, but could it possibly be stretched out over ten weeks or whatever? I just don't see how it can't be rolled into any other home-ec courses (three weeks sex ed, four weeks budgeting, two weeks defensive driving, etc). Advanced calc or trig usually isn't a requirement for graduation (the furthest I went was pre-calc), but I think basic geometry and algebra are quite helpful whether we realize it or not; physics is particularly important when it comes to maneuvering a vehicle!

I had a condom demonstration in 9th grade.

[jakeroot]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I guess your view of "life in the world" is slightly different than my own. The way I see it, schools provide you with lots of knowledge in many different areas (human science courses included!) but the real world is not just fixing cars and defending one's self. Schools assist in teaching you what you want to do in life, and provide you with the knowledge and skills to go and work in an infinite number of fields, or even to continue into an undergrad, grad, or doctorate degree. School is not just teaching you basic life skills like car repair and budgeting. After all, those things are for people with jobs, and you need knowledge and skills to get a job, and a bunch of home-ec courses won't get you those things.

I'm not saying that courses like self-defense or car repair are worthless (they might come in handy but honestly, probably not, especially the latter given how unfriendly modern cars are to non-technicians), but I do think those are things that parents can teach their kids, and going to school should be about learning skills and developing knowledge that I don't think every parent possesses.

Why does it have to be one or the other? 

Why not both "knowledge of different areas" AND "real world skills"?

And what happens when parents don't teach their kids those things that you say they should?  Because many don't.  And that's not the kid's fault. They just get left to fend for themselves?  Is it a bad thing to make sure it's covered somehow?

I guess I'm not getting my point across quite well.

I don't view those things as mutually exclusive: knowledge of different areas are real world skills in the sense that they provide you with the foundation to go and build on whichever piece of knowledge you found most interesting. Schools provide a wealth of knowledge across different areas to help provide a basic foundation of knowledge and skills to their students, so that they can go and take on the world in whatever manner they deem appropriate.

I think the issue we are seeing in this thread is general distaste for schools because schools didn't teach them exactly how to do everything. Therefore, schools are just a money pit, swindling tax payers out of their hard-earned dollars and hypnotizing students to become mindless robots. I'm not saying schools, right now, are perfect. But they shouldn't become these trade academies focused entirely on basic life skills that most students should either innately know, or should be taught through seeing-and-doing just at home. If they aren't, they're quickly realize how important chequebook balancing is once they're living in a tent, I suspect.

Should home-ec courses remain? Sure, and if they don't teach something about the concept of money, that might be wise to consider as part of the curriculum. But don't tell me that we have to, say, replace a chemistry course with budgeting. Students take dozens of courses throughout their middle and high school years, and it doesn't need to all be about budgeting and car repair.

[texaskdog]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I guess your view of "life in the world" is slightly different than my own. The way I see it, schools provide you with lots of knowledge in many different areas (human science courses included!) but the real world is not just fixing cars and defending one's self. Schools assist in teaching you what you want to do in life, and provide you with the knowledge and skills to go and work in an infinite number of fields, or even to continue into an undergrad, grad, or doctorate degree. School is not just teaching you basic life skills like car repair and budgeting. After all, those things are for people with jobs, and you need knowledge and skills to get a job, and a bunch of home-ec courses won't get you those things.

I'm not saying that courses like self-defense or car repair are worthless (they might come in handy but honestly, probably not, especially the latter given how unfriendly modern cars are to non-technicians), but I do think those are things that parents can teach their kids, and going to school should be about learning skills and developing knowledge that I don't think every parent possesses.

Parents can teach their kids math and history too.  Using that argument, why go to school at all?  Kids can be taught how to cook, why home ec?  Kids can be told to go out and play, why phy ed? 

[J N Winkler]

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

Curriculum offerings at schools are often driven by budget considerations.  For example, the Wichita public schools used to offer driver education and had partnerships with local auto dealerships to supply dual-control vehicles.  But all of the teacher positions for this course were eliminated in a budget crunch in 2010, when the effects of the Great Recession hit Kansas.

I never took it, but when I was going to high school, people one or two years ahead of me reported taking a "Parent and Child" elective which went into detail on sex (including a rather graphic film that showed bleeding from a ruptured hymen), childbirth, how to care for an infant, and so on.  For some of them, that information became relevant almost immediately when they started their families while still in their teens.

Hmm, abstinence-only sex ed is definitely not the way of the game around here! I learned quite a lot in 5th grade.

There might be generational and cultural as well as regional dimensions to this--for example, I've not seen much about abstinence-only sex education, outside of families that rely heavily on James Dobson's Focus on the Family materials, since the Bush II administration.

A basic finance course may not be useless, but could it possibly be stretched out over ten weeks or whatever? I just don't see how it can't be rolled into any other home-ec courses (three weeks sex ed, four weeks budgeting, two weeks defensive driving, etc.).

As with any class, the length will depend on the scope of the material covered and the depth of the coverage.  I would contend that a personal finance course is unlikely to make a difference in students' lives unless it focuses on risk management.  That means it has to include elements of the following:

*  Law--Your financial obligations are determined partly by the legal framework in which you operate.  Ideally, a high-school student should emerge with a basic understanding of contracts, personal bankruptcy (including which types of debt are considered non-dischargeable), divorce, and child support obligations, all of which have the potential in early adulthood to set a pattern for his or her financial life that persists for decades afterward.

*  Behavioral economics--Rational decision-making about money is about much more than computing dollar-and-cent amounts.  A person should have a thorough understanding of the forms cognitive bias can take and how to counter it, as it will otherwise affect perception of the risks and rewards attaching to a particular set of options.  At minimum, he or she should be able to see when myopic choice is in play and see through sales tactics.

Being an adult--or, as millennials and Generation Z call it, "adulting"--is partly about making difficult choices under imperfect information.  For example, most of us have to judge whether we can achieve financial stability with a spouse or other life partner despite living in a society where it is considered grossly impolite to discuss money in an overt way (e.g., by asking "How much do you make?").  A high-school finance course will not solve all of the problems we face in interacting with late-stage capitalism, but it will at least give us a leg up in terms of assessing our choices with a clear eye.

[Roadgeekteen]

While I think education is important, the school system sorely lacks things they need to be teaching.  Public Speaking, budgeting, fixing a car, applying for jobs, etc.  People rip on watching TV but I watch a lot of things that educate and read a lot of books.  I choose to learn and learned little in school.

To me, those are not things schools should be teaching. Parents, in between working themselves, should be teaching those skills to their children. I should not be sent off at 18, 19, etc with no concept of budgeting just because I didn't take "BUDG 101".

The last one is a bit troubling, especially: schools should be about providing the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and succeed at a job, not apply for a job.

Why shouldn't schools prepare kids for life in the world???  Why is driving a car something you have to learn after school when 98% of us do it?    How about basic self defense?  If parents can teach us those things they could also teach us other things.  If school does not prepare us for life what's the point?

I guess your view of "life in the world" is slightly different than my own. The way I see it, schools provide you with lots of knowledge in many different areas (human science courses included!) but the real world is not just fixing cars and defending one's self. Schools assist in teaching you what you want to do in life, and provide you with the knowledge and skills to go and work in an infinite number of fields, or even to continue into an undergrad, grad, or doctorate degree. School is not just teaching you basic life skills like car repair and budgeting. After all, those things are for people with jobs, and you need knowledge and skills to get a job, and a bunch of home-ec courses won't get you those things.

I'm not saying that courses like self-defense or car repair are worthless (they might come in handy but honestly, probably not, especially the latter given how unfriendly modern cars are to non-technicians), but I do think those are things that parents can teach their kids, and going to school should be about learning skills and developing knowledge that I don't think every parent possesses.

Why does it have to be one or the other? 

Why not both "knowledge of different areas" AND "real world skills"?

And what happens when parents don't teach their kids those things that you say they should?  Because many don't.  And that's not the kid's fault. They just get left to fend for themselves?  Is it a bad thing to make sure it's covered somehow?

I guess I'm not getting my point across quite well.

I don't view those things as mutually exclusive: knowledge of different areas are real world skills in the sense that they provide you with the foundation to go and build on whichever piece of knowledge you found most interesting. Schools provide a wealth of knowledge across different areas to help provide a basic foundation of knowledge and skills to their students, so that they can go and take on the world in whatever manner they deem appropriate.

I think the issue we are seeing in this thread is general distaste for schools because schools didn't teach them exactly how to do everything. Therefore, schools are just a money pit, swindling tax payers out of their hard-earned dollars and hypnotizing students to become mindless robots. I'm not saying schools, right now, are perfect. But they shouldn't become these trade academies focused entirely on basic life skills that most students should either innately know, or should be taught through seeing-and-doing just at home. If they aren't, they're quickly realize how important chequebook balancing is once they're living in a tent, I suspect.

Should home-ec courses remain? Sure, and if they don't teach something about the concept of money, that might be wise to consider as part of the curriculum. But don't tell me that we have to, say, replace a chemistry course with budgeting. Students take dozens of courses throughout their middle and high school years, and it doesn't need to all be about budgeting and car repair.

We have a Personal Finance course at my high school but not everyone takes it.

[Scott5114]

*  Behavioral economics--Rational decision-making about money is about much more than computing dollar-and-cent amounts.  A person should have a thorough understanding of the forms cognitive bias can take and how to counter it, as it will otherwise affect perception of the risks and rewards attaching to a particular set of options.  At minimum, he or she should be able to see when myopic choice is in play and see through sales tactics.

I think it would be rather constructive if schools taught an "anti-marketing" course in the context of a critical thinking or personal finance class. It was not until I was 29 and took a sales course that examined marketing from the business's perspective that I was able to really grasp how modern marketing works and what psychological tactics are put in play to try to separate a consumer from their money.

But of course, marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry, meaning there are powerful interests that would be livid if the state were to use its resources to inoculate the general public against its tactics.

[LilianaUwU]

I often put powdered parmesan cheese on some foods it usually doesn't belong on.

[kphoger]

I trim my toenails with a box knife.

And none of you are surprised.

[Scott5114]

I set aside torn paper money until I can apply Scotch tape to it. The reason for this is two-fold–obviously, it helps keep the bill from getting any more torn while it's in my possession (which is admittedly unlikely while it's in my possession, as I keep all cash either in a bifold wallet or stored flat at home, and never fold or crease it). The second is that I learned while working in the cash cage at the casino that Scotch-brand tape specifically fluoresces under UV light, which means that it often pings the reject mechanism of higher-end cash-handling equipment such as the Glory Cash Recycler. Given that this type of equipment is near-exclusively used in banks, it makes it more likely that the bank will remove it from circulation and remit it to the Federal Reserve for destruction.

If a bill is too damaged or marked-up for tape alone to sort it, I will set it aside long-term until I have a few such bills in my possession, then bring them to the bank to exchange directly.

[allniter89]

Lactose tolerance is a strange habit, according to most of the world's population. Milk is good as an ingredient, but not by itself.

I have never liked to drink milk by itself. Ever since I had a choice I dont drink milk. I dont mind it in recipes or ice
cream.I love ice cream! In fact I just ate 5 scoops of vanilla with Hersheys Chocolate Syrup yum!.I bought a gallon of Almond/vanilla milk, I shopped hungry what can I say?. Ima try it ifs good I'll add it to my menu. I dont usually eat breakfast if I do its 2-4 scrammbled eggs eaten with a little bit of ketchup or steak sauce.

[kphoger]

The reason for this is two-fold ... I keep all cash either in a bifold wallet or ...

I see what you did there.

[webny99]

-Drinking from a straw

-Using 3 or more napkins for a single meal

[TheHighwayMan3561]

-Drinking from a straw

-Using 3 or more napkins for a single meal

What's strange about these? It's hard to drink out of a fast food cup while driving without a straw. For the second point, it depends on the meal. Using a bunch of napkins for eating relatively clean finger foods like nuggets and fries, sure. But if it's something messy like wings or BBQ, I'll go through a few napkins.

[webny99]

-Drinking from a straw

-Using 3 or more napkins for a single meal

What's strange about these? It's hard to drink out of a fast food cup while driving without a straw.

I was referring more to drinking from regular cups or my Yeti mug, not necessarily a fast food cup since of course those will have straws.

For the second point, it depends on the meal. Using a bunch of napkins for eating relatively clean finger foods like nuggets and fries, sure. But if it's something messy like wings or BBQ, I'll go through a few napkins.

My issue is that I tend to use a napkin once and then for some reason habitually scrunch it up to the point of being unusable, so if I need a napkin again I'll have to waste another one. Sometimes I'll waste five or more on food that doesn't seem particularly messy, which seems kind of strange in addition to being wasteful.

[webny99]

Came back to one of my favorite threads for a re-read and the below quote string struck me funny for some reason. I started to burst out laughing and had to quickly manufacture some throat-clearing noises so no one around got suspicious. 

.... Surely if you were going to eat cereal dry (without milk), you wouldn't pour it into a bowl and eat it with a spoon. ....

That's what I do, although I don't eat cereal very often anyway.

Yipes. Maybe we should poll this issue. I had no idea that was a thing.

Gross. That's like eating chips or popcorn with a spoon.

What do you expect someone to do? I'm not going to use my hands to scoop it up, especially if it's a sugary cereal like Frosted Flakes.

Well idk then, pour it in your mouth or something 

Since I'm here, though, I do have another strange habit to contribute: when I use a tissue, I tend to stick it partially up my nose when blowing. I find it a little more effective, but it's probably not the best thing for my nose.

[Scott5114]

On that note, lately I have taken to eating cereal by hand out of the box, like one would do with a bag of chips or whatever, and having a glass of milk with it.