Things They Don’t Teach You in School

The vast majority of us can relate the transition from school to the ‘grown-up world’ to knowing the ingredients but not the recipe of the dish. We know we learned everything that was properly taught to us, yet somehow there are things we seem to have missed. Dr. Tush Wickramanayake, the Founder Chairperson of the Stop Child Cruelty Trust and Global End Violence Champion, comments on some of the things they don’t teach you in school.

1. Managing your Money and Financial Literacy

The elders of our generation, i.e. the teachers we learned from back in school, navigated through a vastly different socioeconomic landscape from us. Therefore, their understanding of financial management was also quite different. This landscape continues to evolve faster and faster and needs and wants become more complex, and consequently, financial literacy has become a much more crucial skill today.

When making educational, career and lifestyle decisions, the youth of today would benefit immensely from having a solid foundation in financial literacy. And guess what, what constitutes financial literacy today would only be valid 30 years into the future. So, it is a knowledge base that constantly needs to be revised and upgraded.

2.Taxes and Insurance

The idea of taxes instilled in the minds of students is “an unavoidable payment to the government”. As a result, it is not questioned – and many of us still do not know where the ‘tax’ goes. Furthermore, the benefits of insurance schemes are not highlighted enough in contrast to the cost of the premium. The proper understanding of how insurance schemes and the local tax system work has unsurprisingly enabled the upper and upper-middle-class citizens to escape the absurd loss of their money. Meanwhile, the lower classes are robbed of a significant portion of their income.

3. The Importance of Mental Health and Selfcare

Mental health has always been a stigmatised topic; so, it is natural to not invest any attention towards this aspect of our lives. Mental illnesses such as depression almost never existed in the vocabularies of our teachers, but as times evolve, problems evolve.

Today, there are several factors affecting one’s mental state that did not exist before. We are often ridiculed as being the “snowflakes” of the times, but in this digital age where there is an overload of information and an overexposure to stimuli, there is a much greater risk of being overwhelmed. Adding to this is the exponentially greater competition in educational and professional spheres. This disparity is why it is vital that mental health is brought more into focus and taken care of.

4. Consent and Sexual Health

Due to various misguided cultural and religious beliefs, sex has always remained taboo. Needless to say, the natural curiosity of children then leads them to seek understanding from misinformed sources – namely pornography. Hence, the content consumed is perceived as ‘real’ or ‘natural’. Failure to replicate this in real life creates a sense of frustration and could be connected to numerous cases of rape, child sexual abuse and teen pregnancies. Together with this, adequate sexual education also prevents the spread of STIs, which has become a growing concern in the country.

5. Law and Civil Rights

Law and civil rights are not given due attention in schools due to ignorance of the fact that children are rights holders. As a result, youth are unaware of the laws protecting them and are unsure of their rights as citizens of the country. This has given room to an escalation of community violence, ethnic discord and injustice to the vulnerable such as women, children and the disabled.

6. Online Etiquette and Safety

Life online is taking off more rapidly than ever, courtesy of the pandemic. As such, IT literacy now reaches beyond presentations and worksheets. Knowing how to write a courteous email, maintaining a professional online persona, and interacting on social media form the basics of online etiquette, and will soon be deemed a vital component of a child’s education. Together with this, being able to detect scams, providing consent for the sharing of personal information, and preventing cyberbullying at the school level will go a long way in creating a safer space for everyone on the internet.

7. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is not often explicitly taught in schools. When it came to writing exams, the highest mark for most subjects was obtained by those who had the best memory and were able to ‘parrot’ content from study material. This method has removed the element of independent study – restricting creativity and problem-solving abilities even as adults today.

8. The Importance of Calculated Risks

A basis of ‘do exactly what you are told’ dictated how schools operated. Taking a step out of line meant inevitable punishment. While this is essential for discipline, this behaviour prevents students from knowing how to assess a situation and its potential risks and rewards, to take that next step forward. This mindset is replicated when it comes to choosing careers, and only a few opt to venture into the ‘risky’ field of entrepreneurship because of the fear of failure, or ‘not doing what is expected’, i.e. – having that stable corporate job.

9. Doing Well in Studies Does Not Equal Success

As many of us now come to realise, success is a perspective and is learned from beyond the pages of a book. Receiving a good education does not mean teaching students what to do in life or which career to choose; but rather cultivating the pillars of humanity – kindness, compassion, empathy and knowledge. In doing so, students are able to create happiness in whatever it is they choose to do and have their own definitions of what it is to be successful.

10. Sign Language

It is needless to say that we live in the most inclusive workforce era the world has seen. Biases on ethnicity, religion and gender are fading out. However, there is yet a gap to be filled when it comes to the inclusivity of the disabled. Much like any other language, learning how to communicate with the hearing impaired through sign language will be a big step forward in removing discrimination against those with disabilities.

While undoubtedly school life was some of the best years of our lives, there were some lessons we seemed to have missed out on. Perhaps the biggest difference between school and the real world is, in school, we learn the lesson to take the test. Out here, we take the test and learn the lesson.

What are some of the things you learned that school just did not teach?

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