50 Things I Wish I'd Been Taught in High School

[Svnla]

1. How to show your parents you love them, even as a moody teenager.

2. How to balance school work, extracurriculars, social life, family time, time to yourself and sleep without burning yourself out.

3. How to communicate to your parents that they're doing something wrong.

4. How to reach out to a friend you're worried about.

5. What lessons we need to learn for ourselves -- and when it's okay to ask for help.

6. The value of self-love and self-care.

7. How to avoid unnecessary drama.

8. What kind of person makes a good friend.

9. What taxes are.

10. How to pay taxes (including when and how to file a tax return).

11. How to respectfully challenge authority.

12. How to search for good jobs.

13. How to take out a loan -- and one that won't leave you in massive debt.

14. When to engage in small talk and when to demand more interesting conversation.

15. The importance and benefit of unplugging from media sometimes.

16. How to navigate the healthcare system.

17. How to cope with problems related to mental health because they are just as valid and worthy of attention as physical health problems.

18. Why to vote.

19. How to vote.

20. How to network professionally.

21. Time management skills. (There's not nearly enough time devoted to this -- you're just thrown in without much help and are expected to figure it out for yourself. It's really tough.)

22. How and when to authentically and sufficiently express gratitude.

23. Which meals to cook when you're on a student or recent graduate budget (all we ever hear about is Ramen... not exactly the greatest plan health-wise).

24. Self-defense skills.

25. Handy skills -0 how to repair things for yourself.

26. How to present yourself in a job interview.

27. How to avoid giving unnecessary apologies.

28. How to figure out when you really do owe someone an apology.

29. How to give a good apology.

30. The difference between equity and equality.

31. How to get a passport.

32. How to evaluate a contract to see if you're receiving fair treatment.

33. How to determine whether or not a charity organization is credible and worthy of donations.

34. How to ask for a raise.

35. How to check yourself to verify that you actually deserve a raise.

36. Where to go when you don't feel safe at home.

37. How to write a résumé.

38. How to balance a checkbook.

39. How to budget. (See jumpstart.org to verify that most of us are pretty tremendously delusional about how much things cost and how we allocate money.)

40. What our rights are when interacting with the police.

41. How to change a tire.

42. There is a difference between gas and diesel and if you put the wrong one in, it may ruin your car (not a fun lesson to learn from experience).

43. How to deal with grief.

44. How to navigate social media outlets (as in, what not to post, how to manage cyber-bullying and how to anticipate potential negative impact on your self-esteem).

45. How to deal with the guilt of privilege, which we all have in one way or another.

46. How to be aware of our respective privilege and advantages.

47. How to confront someone who's just doing the wrong thing (they tell us we should, but we hear a lot less about how to actually go about the process).

48. How to be less dependent on technology.

49. How to intervene when a family member needs help.

50. How to adequately cope with stress in a healthy way. (This one really gets to me, particularly given the amount of stress school provokes in young people.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carly...hool_b_7153806.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592


Personally, I wish there would be more classes about finance, credit card, debt, basic money stuffs for a typical HS student.


What about ya'll?

 

[Ns1]

wish my school offered krav maga classes

 

[dr150]

Compulsory Course: Intro to Investing

Main Lesson: How thru consistent early investing, the power of compounding in a 401k/IRA will gently guide you to a very comfortable retirement...especially in an era where Social Security is destined to be rat shit.

 

[Ferzerp]

I thought high school kids naturally have an instinctual understanding of the first half of number 6 without any sort of class on it...

 

[Proprioceptive]

The vast majority of these things are absolutely NOT the responsibility of a High School and should be placed in the hands of parents. Sadly, most parents already drop the ball and don't give a shit. Even sadder is that some of these kids don't even have parents.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Here's my partial list.
Basic anatomy - also known as How to dismember your food/enemies.
Fell a tree
Start a fire
Put out a fire
Catch a fish
Use a knife
Sharpen a knife
Cook - at least the basics
Research - Hint: it doesn't involve Google
Sew - the basics at least
Listen without engaging problem solving skills.
Relate to babies, animals and, mother-in-laws
Parallel Park
Basic wiring
Basic plumbing
Jump start a car
Change a tire
Shine shoes
Wash clothes
Iron clothes
Write an essay/letter
Swim
Use basic hand tools
Play card games - does not include Magic the Gathering
Make a bed
First aid
Play catch
Grow plants
Fold a flag
Drive a stick shift
Tie a necktie
Ride a bike
Adjust/maintain a bike
Read a map
Tie a knot
Read a bus/train schedule
Laundry
Camp
Car maintenance
Paddle a canoe
Boat safety
Manage small and large groups

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

I work in insurance (car insurance, business insurance, etc), and it would be kind of nice if people were taught a little bit about the tort legal system in high school. I mean, it's like insurance is just some tax they have to pay if they don't know anything about the civil law system. If you cause a car accident and someone has $200,000 in medical bills, your minimum liability limit of $15,000 that you choose because it's cheap isn't going to save you from a judgement seizing your house and assets. Some people don't even know that you can be held civilly liable for your actions!

 

[Ns1]

Tie a necktie

dear god yes.

 

[Drako]

1) Managing money.
2) Managing relationships.

I was clueless at both of these coming out of high school, and even college. :\

 

[lxskllr]

Practical scripting/coding.

 

[Printer Bandit]

In other words, stuff that your parents should have taught you.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Start a fire
Put out a fire

Those things should be taught and learned in the opposite order.

 

[Kaido]

In other words, stuff that your parents should have taught you.

In theory, but not everybody's parents are good at those things. Having some standards like basic money management & cooking 101 taught by public schools would go a long way to helping kids manage their lives after high school.

 

[highland145]

Here's my partial list.
Basic anatomy - also known as How to dismember your food/enemies.
Fell a tree
Start a fire
Put out a fire
Catch a fish
Use a knife
Sharpen a knife
Cook - at least the basics
Research - Hint: it doesn't involve Google
Sew - the basics at least
Listen without engaging problem solving skills.
Relate to babies, animals and, mother-in-laws
Parallel Park
Basic wiring
Basic plumbing
Jump start a car
Change a tire
Shine shoes
Wash clothes
Iron clothes
Write an essay/letter
Swim
Use basic hand tools
Play card games - does not include Magic the Gathering
Make a bed
First aid
Play catch
Grow plants
Fold a flag
Drive a stick shift
Tie a necktie
Ride a bike
Adjust/maintain a bike
Read a map
Tie a knot
Read a bus/train schedule
Laundry
Camp
Car maintenance
Paddle a canoe
Boat safety
Manage small and large groups

Hired. When can you start?

And don't give me any of that crap that the school shouldn't be handling this.

 

[Kaido]

1. How to shop for food & basic meal planning, especially if you're going to be living in a dorm for a few years or will be kicked out after high school & have to survive on your own

2. How to cook (basic survival cooking)

3. Basic money management: how to track your spending every day, how to create a basic budget of what you spend on fixed & variable expenses every month, how credit cards & student loans can trap you forever, etc.

4. Basic investing & savings, as dr150 said, learning the power of compounding interest & how to actually put a little money away every week starting when you're young

5. How jobs actually work (interviewing, resumes, learning how to look busy during downtime, learning how to put up with BS in your job)

6. How to figure out what job you want so you don't aimlessly just "go to college", and making sure there's a legitimate career that can pay back your school bills waiting for you at the other end of the degree

7. How college works & how to get money for college

8. How to actually study (I legitimately did not learn how to do this until college)

9. How to survive on your own: understanding car basics (oil changes, insurance, etc.), renting a place & renter's insurance, health insurance basics, fallback plan for shelters/soup kitchens/etc. if things go south for awhile, and so on.

So in a nutshell: teach me school, basic money, basic food, and basic moving-out info. I would have been a lot more successful my first few years out of the house if I had known that stuff, but it didn't even occur to me to ask because I had lived at home all throughout high school like most kids.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Hired. When can you start?

And don't give me any of that crap that the school shouldn't be handling this.

My folks believed anyone who didn't know these things before you left home was starting life with one foot in a bucket. Anyone who didn't start out on their own after high school had the bucket over their head.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I don't understand why people need school or parents to teach you this stuff. Nobody taught me jack shit, I just Googled everything.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I don't understand why people need school or parents to teach you this stuff. Nobody taught me jack shit, I just Googled everything.

That explains so much.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I don't understand why people need school or parents to teach you this stuff. Nobody taught me jack shit, I just Googled everything.

Who taught you how to Google?

 

[Slew Foot]

Kissing butt and bribing politicians, the two most useful skills in the US today

 

[rh71]

In other words, stuff that your parents should have taught you.

Yup.

Teachers and schools are too busy getting kids prepped for college so they rank better as good schools. They don't care about life lessons. There's not enough time in the day for that.

College was great for a reason - you discover yourself and many many things on your own.

I don't understand why people need school or parents to teach you this stuff. Nobody taught me jack shit, I just Googled everything.

ahem... altavista and yahoo weren't as good in our day 20 years ago (man I just said that). You could imagine how sparse and unorganized information was back then. Youtube has taught many people many things now that it's around too.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I don't understand why people need school or parents to teach you this stuff. Nobody taught me jack shit, I just Googled everything.

Being able to search the Internet for answers is only a recent (in the past ~20 years) development for most people. Being able to check YouTube for step-by-step guides is even more recent.

Encyclopedias and other reference books could only take you so far so fast. These days I can learn how to take apart XYZ on my car, check it for wear / damage, clean it, and put it back together by watching or reading guides on the Internet in a matter of an hour or less. I can learn how to start in a new programming language in just a few minutes. 15 or 20 years ago that may have taken an afternoon, a few days, weeks, or months. Just the fact that you had to know how to use a card catalog and have SOME knowledge about the subject to even know where to find the right information rather than typing a question into a piece of software that does all the hard work for you should be evidence enough.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yup.

Teachers and schools are too busy getting kids prepped for college so they rank better as good schools. They don't care about life lessons. There's not enough time in the day for that.

College was great for a reason - you discover yourself and many many things on your own.



ahem... altavista and yahoo weren't as good in our day 20 years ago (man I just said that). You could imagine how sparse and unorganized information was back then. Youtube has taught many people many things now that it's around too.

You and NikolaeVarius deserve each other. Unfortunately, no one deserves the kind of world you espouse.

 

[Ruptga]

Calculus. Instead I learned that advanced math as it's taught now is a waste of time because the only people that rely on it use calculators and/or programs to do the number crunching. That's all true but it meant that I never even had precalc and I was completely boned when I got to college, since I didn't have the background or stomach to deal with the math required by the majors that would lead to a real job.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Calculus. Instead I learned that advanced math as it's taught now is a waste of time because the only people that rely on it use calculators and/or programs to do the number crunching. That's all true but it meant that I never even had precalc and I was completely boned when I got to college, since I didn't have the background or stomach to deal with the math required by the majors that would lead to a real job.

You know they do offer testing and classes to bring you up to speed in college, right? Of course, that does screw with the graduate in four plan but, most graduate in six these days.