The purpose of schooling is to get equipped with education to move through life and solve simple issues every day.
If you ask many school leavers what they learn in school, they may remember Pythagoras theorem, facts about mitochondria and so on. However, while knowing these facts will help to solve specific problems in their respective disciplines, there are several real-life problems your school curriculum should have included.
Here are 20 things everyone should have learned in school:
- Gardening And Cooking
Taking care of the surroundings and oneself are very vital to human survival. Therefore, these skills should be taught extensively in school because of their importance in real life. For example, what will you do if your car breaks down? How can you keep your stuff and gadgets from spoiling? Do you know how to cook and place yourself on a healthy diet? These are skills every school should add to the curriculum, but we had to learn them the hard way.
- How To Balance Your Life
When life seems to go out of control, and there are endless demands tugging at you from all sides, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, exhausted – and just plain stressed! Well, most of us feel frustrated and wish we had prepared well for situations like these. But, in fact, proper balance starts WITHIN YOU first and foremost, no matter what else is happening in your outer life circumstances.
- How To Deal With Difficult Coworkers
All of us are faced with this frustrating situation. Whether it is a distressing colleague or an over-demanding boss, we all need to have learned how to deal with difficult people without feeling inadequate or insecure and lose our own inner peace. If you know how best to deal with difficult people in your life, you will have healthier relationships with yourself and others. Unfortunately, however, we did not learn this in school.
- How To Budget In Real Life
This is a vast concept that we all need in life, and we are not even talking about it enough. Most people don’t know how to maintain a healthy credit score. We should have learned how to budget real money and live within one’s means. Budgeting can save your life. It is one way to show responsibility. However, all we learned is how to keep accounts for a mystery shopkeeper who buys a thousand cabbages!
- How to Create A Love For Learning
It is almost too late before most of us realize that life is about how much we learn and apply. Most people are too lazy to learn because schools have groomed them to read, memorize information to regurgitate it, and pass tests to get good grades. As a result, most of us never really learned, and many teachers make learning boring.
- How To Communicate Your Feelings
Feelings and communicating feelings make us sane as intelligent species. All of us need to validate our emotions and allow ourselves to feel them. Only then can we learn to control our emotions. However, most of us either are too scared to admit feelings or cannot express them appropriately. We grew up learning that feeling too much emotions may be a sign of weakness. We need to include this into the school curriculum.
- Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the understanding that you are separate from others and realizing outside forces affect your person, recognizing you have your own personality with likes and dislikes. Self-awareness is how you consciously know and understand your own character, feelings, motives, and desires. It involves gaining insight into our emotions, moods, reactions and responses. Paying attention to our default responses and our ingrained habitual tendencies. This is the first step to achieving goals and dreams.
- Logical Thinking
Logical thinking is vital to human life. Without logic, it would be difficult to perform simple tasks such as cooking or planning our day. Logical thinking is essential in reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making processes. Logic enables us to become emotionally independent, so our emotions do not wreak havoc in our lives. However, many people lack this ability, and that has caused many problems. This should be taught in schools.
- Leadership Skills
A good and successful leader must have reasonable confidence, listening skills, and effective interpersonal communication. We all need leadership skills to excel in life because you will always have to deal with other people, no matter what you do in life. These qualities can help you reach your goals faster. These skills don’t just jump on whoever has them. We need to learn these skills in school.
- How To Effectively Manage Your Time
Why is time management a separate training program? Most people have to spend more money to learn time management after realizing the importance of this skill. Learning time management skills is the most crucial skill anyone can learn in life. In today’s society, we are expected to do several things in a short time. Most people start multitasking to get things done on time. You have to learn that pressuring skill at the last minute!
- How To Manage Failure
People tend to take failures negatively. However, failures teach us a lot of things. We should have learned that failures are part of the learning process. It’s not something we have to avoid at all costs. If you become too fearful of mistakes or failures, you will not be taking new initiatives or starting new projects. We are taught not to make mistakes in schools and colleges. There is punishment for making mistakes. It’s terrible for us. It kills our spirit to try new things and innovate. Our education system should be blamed for this, which punishes us for making mistakes. That makes us believe that failing is considered taboo. The education system should be updated, and children should be encouraged to discover and invent things. We need to have a higher level of tolerance for failure.
- You Don’t Need To Go To College
To excel in life, all you need is the right skills, networking, and excellent marketing skills. Many people think that you need a college degree to get a good job, and without one, you will only be able to get a burger-flipping job, which is not true. Many great high-paying jobs are available even for people with no college degree. Many of us grew up thinking you must get a college degree or you will not amount to anything but that is not true.
- The Basics Of Sex Education
Children are taught the biology of reproduction and body changes in puberty, but the really essential sex education is neglected. As a result, most people get around life through several trials and errors. Unfortunately, that has led to many life-changing mistakes that haunt most people for the rest of their miserable lives.
- How To Say “No.”
Many people find this so difficult. Saying “no” is associated with not being collaborative, not wanting to help and support, not being there for others, not considering what others want as important, and putting our needs before others. Many fear that if they say, No, they may be seen as abrupt, aggressive, forthright, offensive, and even rejecting other people. In other words, saying “no” is about not being “nice.” If we don’t learn to say “no,” however, we become everything we don’t want to be – overwhelmed, irritable, stressed, running on empty, impatient, abrupt. We also have no time for the things we really want to do or for the people we really want to spend time with.
- How To Deal With Sexual Harassment
We’re all familiar with extreme acts of sexual harassment such as a pinch on the buttocks, ogling, lewd remarks and disgusting attempts at fondling. However, when it comes to serious issues of sexual harassment, most people don’t know what to do. That is because we were taught to be discreet with issues involving our private parts.
- What To Do When You Can’t Afford Health Insurance
Many people lack health insurance. Many people lost their group health plans when they lost their job. Others are self-employed or work in a company that does not offer group health insurance. There are alternative private health plans on the market, but many people cannot afford them or get accepted by one. We all should have learned what we can do to avoid trouble getting treatment.
- The Importance Of Taking Care Of Your Mental Health
Another vital lesson we ought to learn in school is how to take care of our mental health. People think that if they talk about their emotions, it’s a sign of weakness. They feel embarrassed and ashamed and don’t really know how to talk about how they feel on many levels. Beyond that, many people are afraid of being labeled loony, or crazy, or psycho, or wacko. If they have an emotional problem, they’re worried that people will judge them, and make them more of an outcast.
- Etiquette
You’re out at a business lunch or dinner, and you look at the table, and there are a billion forks, spoons and knives. Which one do you use and when? You look and wonder why you have a big glass and a smaller glass? Am I that thirsty? You don’t want to look ignorant. The waitress comes around and offers you a fresh-smelling lemon hot towel, and you look at her like, what do I need this for? All these things could be avoided if there were mandatory classes in high school called real life! This type of situation happens often and could be a deal-breaker when out for a bite to eat with someone who can advance your career.
- Voting
I am sure you know you have to register to vote, right? Oh, is that common sense thing coming up again? Do you know where to go to register and what to do if you move? Do you know how to file for an absentee ballot? That knowledge should be put out in school.
- Car Loans, Credit Scores, And Mortgage
Am I supposed to just go into the dealership and say I’m here to buy a car and I need some money to help buy it? In high school, we are not taught to be smart with our money or learn to build wealth when we get a little change to invest. How can I know coming out of high school what a good APR would be to finance a car with my current credit score? A lot of these hassles could have been avoided if I had a basic knowledge to draw from.
We should not waste extra time learning these essential skills on Google or anywhere else. We should have known them all in school and gotten them all locked down. Instead, we should spend more time in productive businesses and gym sessions.
What are your thoughts about this? Is it true?
Do you think we learned all the valuable things we needed as adults in school? Let us know in the comment section below. Which of these did you wish you had learned before now?
