From elementary school to college courses, we learn valuable lessons on the world’s history, how to solve complicated math problems, and much more. While the education system is vital to students, there are many life lessons that many schools don’t teach. Here are some of the most valuable life skills they don’t teach you in school—but should.
Handling Finances
Money is something that the school curriculum doesn’t cover. Once you set off into the real world, you’ll quickly need to learn a few crucial lessons in adequately managing your finances. Skills like budgeting, paying taxes, and investing are all necessary to living comfortably within your income.
Current Politics
Many government classes cover our political system’s history, including how Congress creates and passes bills and who makes up the presidential cabinet. Then, shortly after high school, young adults have their first opportunity to cast their votes in the next presidential election. However, unless you’ve done the research yourself, your high school government class likely hasn’t brought you up to speed on the inner workings of the current political climate.
Home and Car Repairs and Insurance
Not only do you have to learn to manage your finances alone, but owning a home and a vehicle comes with a lot of new lessons as well. Maintaining a home is a lot of work and requires plenty of preventative maintenance and insurance coverage in case of emergencies.
Likewise, cars can have a lot of unexpected breakdowns. Unless you took a mechanics class as an elective, you might be clueless as to why your car won’t start before work or find yourself on the side of the road wondering how to change a flat tire.
Cooking and Nutrition
Just like car mechanics, you may get an opportunity to take a cooking elective. However, you won’t learn nearly as much as you need to. You may learn some new dishes and cooking techniques, but the focus will not be on nutrition, a vital piece of the healthy-living puzzle.
Job Hunting and Networking
In most cases, finding a job is more about who you know than what you know. While the education system teaches you many valuable hard skills you’ll need to find a job, it puts the soft skills like job hunting and networking on the back burner.
School is an absolute necessity to learn hard skills in math, science, and communication. However, many students find that there are many other skills that traditional education doesn’t teach, including this list of the most valuable life skills they don’t teach in school.
