Kids these days are learning things like world history and integrated math skills which are perfectly valuable to forming an adult. However, what a lot of these curriculums are missing are things that can be applied in everyday adult life. While things like learning how to solve the hypotenuse theorem may be good for brain development, it isn’t exactly something that an average adult has to deal with on a daily basis.
What blossoming adults should learning is how to apply life skills to their daily lives. By teaching kids things that are applicable in everyone’s life regardless of your profession, we are setting them up for success in the real world. Here are some of the things that should be added to school programs.
How To Be Financially Responsible
Kids should know how to balance their banking account or apply for a credit card. They should know about debt vs income and how to pay off their student loans. If kids knew about how to refinance a mortgage before even exiting high school imagine how well versed and educated on finance they would be by the time they were actually old enough to own a home.
Kids would be prepared to become fiscally capable adults if this were the focus in the education system. And let’s face it, the world could benefit from more knowledge about how finances work. Knowledge is power particularly when it comes to your hard earned money.
Proper Nutrition
Beyond learning the basic food pyramid children should be learning what a macronutrient is vs a micronutrient and what the dangers of sugar are. School lunches shouldn’t be pre-frozen nachos and processed luncheon meats that taste like plastic.
Young adults should learn about the preparation and appreciation of real wholesome food. Since one of the leading causes of death in the United States is obesity, it is no big surprise that nutrition is definitely not a center of focus currently in the education system.
How To Navigate/Travel
Have you ever handed your teenager a map and they have no idea what to do with it if there isn’t a blue dot moving on an iPhone screen? The importance of being able to navigate and read a map is a lost art that should be learned.
Kids should also know simplistic navigation skills like how to get around in an airport. It is all too common for adults to travel for the first time only to have no idea how an airport works.
How To Cook And Clean
Forget basic home economics. There should be a course that focuses on how to deep clean grout and get ketchup stains out of white t-shirts.
Kids should know how to roast a chicken and grow their own garden. These kinds of skills would make the world full of fantastic cooks who can do more than putting something in the microwave.