We rely on schools to teach us many things to provide us the basic knowledge to navigate life and the world. While we do get some of this information, there is a lot of basic data and skills that schools always fail to pass on to us, even though they would serve us just as well or better than knowing that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
How to handle bullies
In school, we often encounter bullies for the first time, and, unfortunately, in many places, this situation is not handled correctly. As children, we might be left to face our bullies time and time again and punished if we respond.
The most common piece of advice is to “just ignore it,” but that does not always work. We might learn to bear it or face that we are alone with our trauma but not how to handle it effectively.
We will find that bullying doesn’t stop once we leave school. We might encounter bullies in social settings, at work, in college, and in more places. It’s important to learn how to handle them with grace, setting boundaries, withdrawing, and, most importantly, working on ourselves.
When we better ourselves and improve our own insecurities, we can give bullies less ammunition and make them less likely to target us. Working to develop genuine confidence can be a good way to guard against bullies, among the many other benefits it will have for us.
Finances
Schools don’t usually teach how to manage one’s finances and the intricacies related to all these topics. However, finances are incredibly important. We need to know what to do and what to avoid, how to stay afloat, how to save money and how to invest it.
Learning empowers us to make better financial decisions, avoid going deep into debt, solve our crises, and much more. What should we learn for financial management? We can start with the basics. Keeping and managing a budget can help us understand our income and the way we spend. Having a monthly budget allows us to prevent impulsive purchases and use only the money we have.
Saving is also useful, and we need to find ways to incorporate it into our lives. Saving can shield us against unexpected situations and expenses, as well as give us a cushion if we want to try out something new or get out of a situation quickly.
Practical knowledge and day-to-day skills
Achieving self-sufficiency is important, and a big part of this is being able to handle day-to-day activities, whether it’s cooking, cleaning, fixing a toilet, or anything else. We might not have learned this at school, but we still have a responsibility to understand it.
Not only can it save us money, but it can also help us feel more in control, better equipped to handle critical issues, and less likely to let problems escalate. Today, learning how to manage everyday activities is easier than ever – the Internet is full of tutorials and tips.
How to deal with failure
Schools punish failure. They teach us to avoid it at all costs and often don’t help us recognize how important mistakes are for our overall progress. We learn to avoid or hide our failures, not cope with them. In life, we might need to accept failure as a valid option and focus on the lessons it can bring.
What would we do differently next time? What is the most important thing we can take away from this situation? Permitting ourselves to fail as frequently as we need is important.
Mental health matters
Another thing that is rarely taught in schools is that our mental health is essential and that we should take care of it. In general, we are expected to sacrifice our mental health for the sake of good grades. However, that is not sustainable. We need to learn how to practice self-care – manage our sleep schedule, take breaks, support ourselves, and so on. Developing and cultivating specific practices, like self-compassion, gratitude, altruism, and more, can be a good way of improving our mental health, and they can be practiced through simple daily exercises, like journaling or helping others.
Socializing and Networking ( Earlier Building career)
A school can give us the theoretical knowledge we need to grow professionally, but it does not always provide the practical support we need. How do you do a cover letter? How do you get through a job interview? How do you network? Some schools provide outdated advice or no advice at all, so we have to learn on the fly.
We need to understand how to build networks, how to influence people, how to communicate, how to tell our boss that something is not going right. These skills are also important for our career, so we need to learn them as well.
Setting goals & Time Management
Schools set goals for their students, and this might leave some people feeling lost after they leave. We need to learn to find our own goals. Something that helps a lot in developing our autonomy. Time management is another skill that schools often fail to teach us.
Indeed, we often learn bad habits, like doing our homework the day before it’s due. We need to know how to set deadlines and meet them, how to make the most of our time, and all these skills that allow us to use our time in the most productive way possible.
