Social Skills

Well they might have it in special education classes? I don't think most people need a class to tell them how to interact with other people though.

My social skills are fine. I interact with people everyday.. in a social manner? Lmao, what does your second question entail?

My social skills are in the borderline of poor and above average because I'd rather be by myself and do my own thing; if I'm with other people, I try to socialize in any way I can.

I'm fine in groups, i can talk and i don't stalk people. I'd say my social skills are average.

I think I have decent/excellent communication skills. But my overall social interaction can be compared to crap. Mostly because of how much I am of an "Odd one out" in my school. I focus too much on my academic studies and my personality can take quick swifts, which I really need to control. That + Not looking my age has tarnished my ability to exercise social skills and therefore completely crippled them. Results are few friends outside of school.

But as for writing and general communication, I can do that very well. All depends on what you mean by social skills.

As for teamwork: Also crap, especially in smaller and closer teams. I can't cooperate and I always need to have things under my control to feel comfortable, and the requirements of having to work as a team simply don't fit the way I can do things or learn.

Captain Fabio said:

Social skills class is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time.

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I disagree with this just a bit, actually.

Not that I think they can really devote an entire high school class to it, but they certainly should put more focus on courses that teach you how to work as a team and communicate. You get a job nearly anywhere, and that's the first thing they look for - can you be a team player, and are you sociable? Just go ahead and try to get a job at any retail store by saying "No" to the "Do you like meeting new people" or "Do you feel you work better with others" questions on the cliché personality test. >:

I just feel schools prepare us for every other little thing we may come across in the working world except the ability to be sociable. Heck, my school system discouraged any kind of chatting outside of lunch until I was in either junior or senior high school. .__.; I know it's a little hard to learn such a thing, but incorporating things like more group exercises would really be beneficial to today's youth. I hated group work too as a kid, but it does give you a little more practice for the world.

Unless you plan on owning your own internet business and never leaving your house in the future, that is. :D

インフェルノの津波 said:

You know, I find it funny that the Board of Education doesn't usually fund or tell schools to have a social skills class. I mean, without social skills, you won't go far in life.

It's a human requirement.

But, how good are your social skills? How do you interact with people on a day-to-day basis?

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Isn't recess for this? You can't really -teach- someone to be more social, you just have to expose them to situations, group projects, and different classroom activities.

You're already learning to be social.. otherwise they could've just made Highschool into an online-only school.
Also.. that's why I sorta have a problem with homeschooling. Homeschooled kids should be required to do some sort of project or learning activity that involves other people.

But a class for it? Waste of time IMO :/ the non-social kids wouldn't ask questions or anything in it anyways. I know I went to a Catholic school.. and we had religion class which was basically telling you how to approach situations with people with a moral standpoint according to the bible.. but that's as close as you get. Sure it was helpful but I sure as hell didn't need 11 years of it (or however many classes were required) :/

Kura said:

Isn't recess for this? You can't really -teach- someone to be more social, you just have to expose them to situations, group projects, and different classroom activities.

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This.

No one taught me social skills and I am fine. It would be a waste of a good slot which would be utilized for actual education. How would you teach someone to be more social? Go talk to more people? Interact in this certain way?

Everyone is different and everyone interacts differently in a social situation. You can't tell someone to be happy and bubbly when their personality doesn't fit that. People need to discover their own social skills. This is why there are, as Kura said, group projects, team management and so on. That could be considered 'social classes', but they aren't really.

This is why ice breakers exist. It is to get you to interact with people and to be more open if the situation calls for it.​

hmm a class for social skills may not be entirely feasible, but at the very least I do believe School should try to promote more activities and the like to which students are exposed to working together, conmunicating and so and so forth. While monitoring these activities teachers and such would be able to help students by suggesting different ways to go around there interactions I suppose. Its really hard to say.

Form my personally stand point, I probably could of really gained from having more social skills "taught" to me. As it is right now, I actually have social anxiety. Interacting with people is usually really hard for me and I have a tendency to avoid it. Even online it takes me some great effort to actually get myself to post on forums like this.

I'm more of a listener than a talker. I prefer to either be in a group where I can not speak much without it being awkward, or with a close friend when I can speak a lot and never run out of things to say. I'm better around talkative people.

As for social skills classes, I think schools will just stuff it up like how they can't control most cases of bullying. I mean a suggested solution to somebody insulting you is saying "Thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it" and walking off. How is that going to stop bullying? If anything it'll make the bully see the bullied as more weird and make them more likely to be picked on. I mean, that's just an example but I can't imagine social skills being any better. Ideally it's a great idea, but I think this is a life skill that can't be taught by schools. It can be helped, definitely, by having more group activities or social clubs or something, but classes dedicated to social skills wouldn't work.

I guess I'm anti-social, but sometimes I may just go for it. I'm not the out-going type.

In school, I wasn't anti-social. I wasn't mute. I wasn't shy. I was just quiet. I barely spoke to anyone during class, unless they spoke to me. I was there for the education, and got out as soon as I was permitted. I socialized when socialization was expected; in the halls, between classes, after school, at lockers, etc. and my extended communication was limited to people I were friends with.

I highly disagree that you can't make it far in life without strong social skills. You can't make it far in life without an education, point blank.

We had a program like this in our school for incoming freshman. We had it every month, during a gym period. It was stupid. I felt like I was in Kindergarden again, and I barely took the session at all seriously. Social skills are developed early on in life. No matter what you do later, you usually can't change their habits. Social skills aren't exactly something you can learn. It's something you pick up, and develop as an individually based on your past experiences.

My social skills are so lacking at points, sometimes I feel like I grew up under a rock.

It's just... it's not that I didn't have ample opportunity to socialize, both as a kid and as an adult. I went to school, I have a job. It's just that most of the time, I kept to myself. I get along with people fairly well, but I still don't feel like I picked up on that many social cues as a kid.

Greatest example: I didn't realize I was supposed to look people in the eyes until I started working my first job, where my stepbrother goes "you need to look customers int he eye when you're talking to them". I just... no one ever told me I was supposed to and I never realized. Do you know how hard it is to stare people at the face after 18/19 years of not? Even at work when I try to remember, 9 times out of 10 I still forget.

I can also sound a bit snappy at times when I don't mean to. :( I always feel bad because I bet customers can tell I'm irritated when I'm not, not at them, anyway...

I can be shy around new people, but that's fairly common. I tend to talk to everyone and anyone. Even those who everyone else will deem as weird. I just enjoy getting to know everyone and I rather not miss out on getting to know someone. As far as I know I'm really well liked and known so I guess I have good social skills. For some odd reason though I tend to be extremely shy online. :(

As much as I enjoy talking to people I also really enjoy time to myself, so I can go for days without any out of the family social interaction. Well, that is when I don't have school for a long period of time. When I have school regularly I obviously talk to everyone and not just sit the corner. I mean more like during vacations and the summer time I'll often ignore my friends for days at a time and just hang out at home myself. I guess I'm a homebody.