Teach Kids These 7 Things In School
What kids should learn in school is under constant debate, but there are some basic life skills missing that should be added.
They are grammar, consent, relationships, positive sex, how to run a meeting, public speaking and project management.
Depending on what school, in what country, the first two are being taught in some places. But it is hardly uniform.
Grammar
At some point, the formal study of grammar ceased in most public schools. I am sure there are good reasons for it, but language, like mathematics, has rules.
Learning the rules of grammar in a formalised sense makes better writers, and if you’ve read the comment section of a popular website lately, you know the world needs better writers.
What grammar also helps with is learning a second language. If you are a native English speaker and want to learn a new language, you start out learning the grammatical rules of that new language.
What if you have never been taught grammar formally? You’re sweet out of luck. Not only are you learning a language, but now you’re learning grammar too. You didn’t sign up for that. Learning grammar at school is achievable, learning grammar with the new language is hard.
I suspect that many people who quit learning a language actually quit because of the difficulty of learning grammar.
So, better writers and more multi-lingual people. That’s a win. And on an individual level, languages and writing increasing employability.
Consent, Relationships & Positive Sex
I am going to lump these three in one section as they will be taught in the same class.
There is some great work going on sporadically about teaching kids about consent, but sporadically isn’t systemic. And I think we can all agree that teaching kids about consent is a no brainer.
What is also missing from sex-ed is any decent relationship skills training. Teens in the first few years of high school are also experiencing their first more mature relationships.
Sure, you’ll teach them how to put that condom on the banana, but will you teach them about conflict resolution? How about respect? Or compromise, or talking about your emotions in a constructive way?
When exactly does a person learn these things? There’s plenty of variation in advice on all of this, but some basics wouldn’t hurt while these teens are practicing for the more grown up versions they’ll be having as they get older.
On a related note, there is so much going on in teens’ lives that revolve around sex. Same question: You’ll teach them the proper use of a banana, but not that sex can be fun (when consensual) and it’s ok to enjoy it?
There is some work being done by academics on the changing nature of young people sex. Essentially the unlimited access to porn is changing the type and expectations of sex between young people. And not in a good way. Society is going to have to start teaching kids about positive sex.
Ok, now that I have set off every spam filter on the planet, let’s move on.
How To Run A Meeting
Much like public speaking, which I’ll get to in a second, meetings are one of those things that schools do, but don’t teach.
You may have been elected to student council and now run meetings, but no one teaches you how to do it. Chaos ensues. So many meetings in your life, shouldn’t you start out learning how to use them effectively?
Read my guide to running effective meetings.
Public Speaking
This one is huge. It’s the number one fear of Americans. Above death. Think about that for a second.
Oh, but I gave lots of presentations in school! Giving a presentation is learning a topic and talking about it. Yeah, you didn’t learn about public speaking, you learnt Othello.
Public speaking is a skill. There are ground rules, common tips, styles, body language, breathing and so much more. And all this is not taught at school. Not formally.
There are two places where ‘public speaking’ happens in schools: Drama and debate. Even these two are just specialised subsets. They are great and kids who did one or both of them for school benefit for the rest of their lives.
But shouldn’t all kids benefit from this important skill? Debating is polite conflict, not speech giving per se.
Later in life, you can take Toastmasters, but you should be learning tone, delivery, the rule of three, breathing and all the other public speaking skills in school.
Again, this is something with so many benefits for society, but especially for employment.
Project Management AKA Group Work
Just like public speaking and meetings, you are forced into group work from an early age, but no effort is made to give you the skills to do group work.
Plenty of ‘learn-by-failing’ or pass by ‘doing-it-all’ happens but not a lot of ‘here’s how you delegate, track progress and complete on time.’
I won’t go on about why kids need this for their lives. You get the idea.
Teach All The Things?
I am not recommending a massive overhaul of the curriculum, these skills can be taught easily in pre-existing classes.
I have mentioned employability a few times, and it’s true that aside from the relationship stuff, all these will help you get a job. But these skills go beyond that, and it starts at school.
Improvements in grammar, meetings, projects and speaking by students will hugely benefit all their studies, vocational or otherwise. And that’s my point. Why make students give terrible speeches on subjects they love?
