School can be tough, but it can be a piece of cake, too. It depends on what type of person you are, among other things. For many subjects, having a good teacher can be crucial and can shape how you feel and what you know on the subject matter for your whole life.
But, many will say, no matter your personality or who taught you, the school system might be failing you because it’s too focused on memorizing tons of information. Another thing is that students are expected to be equally successful in all subjects, that’s how they are graded. On top of that, most kids will come to a point when they will wonder if they're ever going to use that knowledge in real life.
On the other hand, there are things that could really come in handy in everyday life, but they have never been part of any curriculum. We bring you a list of five things we think children would benefit from and thrive in life if only they at least heard about it in classes.
How to pay taxes
The idea of paying taxes for most of us is a not so warm welcome to adulthood. When you're still going to school, you live in a world where taxes don't exists. Then, suddenly, when you become an independent adult, you should know all about them and pay them properly.
This is why it would be sensible to learn about the US tax system when you are still in school. Because you will end up paying them and you might be in serious trouble if you don’t do it right. Also because there are taxes you start paying as soon as you start spending money, and it might be helpful to know that growing up.
How to save a life
Saving life seems like the job of a medical professional that chooses a proper school where they will teach him how to do it. But in reality, many lives could be saved if only more of us would know the basics of First Aid. I.e, statistics show that applying proper CPR increases the chances of survival for a victim of cardiac arrest until the ambulance arrives.
But while most of us are pushed to learn about human and animal biology and even how and why life can end, we don't really learn much about how to stop the latter from happening. One big improvement though, while we wait for the school curriculum to finally catch up, is the fact that First Aid courses are available online and anyone can get CPR certified this way.
How to communicate
As we already mentioned, the idea of most school subjects is that students should memorize a ton of information and occasionally take an exam to see how good their memory is. That’s about it. Only a handful of students learn how to think critically about the information they are asked to memorize. And this only thanks to the fact that they are very lucky to have amazing teachers.
But when it comes to the ability to successfully and purposefully use that memorized matter, most students are left in the dark. Schools in general don’t teach us how to shape our thoughts and how to express ourselves in the best way possible. This means that we also don’t know how to listen productively and pick up the right information.
You might think that people are born with these skills but you are wrong. Even the biggest extroverts can learn a lot about channeling their thoughts and using the words in the best ways. They could use a lesson or two about listening even more.
How to clean and fix your house and your car
You might think that in households where there aren’t professional cleaning services hired, kids will learn from their parents about the proper hygiene of the house and the car. But it’s not that simple. Because sometimes kids aren’t interested until it’s time to be an adult and have their own house/car. Not to mention that there are professional ways to clean that are much more efficient, and healthier and faster than the traditional ones.
These are the reasons why it would be good for kids to learn about cleaning at school. Especially the latter: professional ways of keeping the hygiene levels high can be extremely beneficial for our health and our environment.
How to be safe online
The Internet has been here for a while now. And while the newest generations do learn a lot about it, not much of their lessons seem to be about its dangerous side.
Lessons about antivirus and why it’s important, phishing, getting your identity stolen, and lately what is blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies might help the kids live safer in the real world. Not to mention how much learning about safety online could help them protect themselves from the online predators that especially attack the kids.
To conclude
Many things in our school system need upgrading. The most recent example is the conversation about the time when school starts. The curriculum definitely needs some polishing, maybe more than anything else. While we agree learning history is important as well as the grammar of English or Spanish, additional life skills would go a long way in helping today’s school children navigate adulthood.
