Things that should be taught in every school.

As a popular writer and blogger, Mark Manson has many articles sharing unique perspectives on life. Among them, this young author has an article titled "5 Things Every School Should Teach," which adds to what is lacking in the current education system. Below is his article on this topic.

Let's be honest: Our education system is terrible.

Most of the important historical knowledge I learned between 5th and 12th grade can be found on Wikipedia and understood completely within a few weeks. And most basic science concepts are explained thoroughly in YouTube videos. Above all, we have the most unstable job market in the last 100 years. Technology is developing at a breakneck pace, and robots will do half the jobs within a decade. College degrees are being debated as worthless. Every six months, a new industrial and technological invention emerges.

Learning how to avoid pitfalls in relationships and how to better control yourself, express your emotions, and show love are life-changing skills.

Yet we still push our children to school to learn the same curriculum their grandparents went through.

It's time we recognized that most of the important things you learn in life don't come from school. For me personally, the important things I learned were through self-study as an adult.

But why aren't these things taught in school? If I spend six months studying Chaucer and Renaissance painting, why don't I spend those six months learning about retirement savings and what constitutes sexual consent? Or why doesn't anyone tell me, until I'm an adult, that most jobs will be done by robots or outsourced overseas?

Where are those classes? What classes should we be taking in high school? In my opinion, there are five things we need to learn immediately.

1. Personal Finance

The curriculum should include: credit cards, interest rates, credit ratings, and retirement accounts.

Why should you start saving $100 a week as soon as you turn 18? Because by the time you're 50, you'll have four times that amount. That's a lot of money, isn't it? Why didn't I know about this until I was 24?

Why this is important: Because a middle-class American family has over $15,000 in credit card debt each month, 36% of American workers have no retirement savings.

A lack of financial literacy is a really big problem. Because, as you can see, a society full of people buying things they can't afford, retiring without savings, getting sick and unable to pay for medical expenses – this seems to be exactly what's happening.

2. Relationship Management

The curriculum should include: communicating and expressing one's emotions without blaming or judging others; knowing how to recognize and stop manipulative behavior; personal boundaries and not becoming an instigator; honest discussions about sexuality; issues related (or unrelated) to love and how to experience the differences between men and women.

We learn most of these things by experiencing the pain of a breakup.

Why this is important: Because when you're lying in bed dying of cancer, you won't be thinking about why Napoleon was able to overcome jealousy in Russia, or how the Meiji coup changed the entire geopolitical landscape of Asia, or how organic compounds gradually corrupt your brain.

You will only think about the people you love in your life and the people you have lost.

Many things contribute to a happy life, but few influence and impact happiness as much as our relationships. Learning how to avoid pitfalls in relationships and how to better manage oneself, express emotions, and show love are life-changing skills.

As human beings, we are social creatures. We cannot exist in a vacuum. We cannot. The threads of social relationships weave the tapestry of our lives.

3. Logic and logical reasoning

The curriculum should include: The following question is true or false - If all B's are C's and all C's are D's, then all D's are B's.

The answer, of course, is "wrong".

These types of questions are always frustrating on standardized tests. However, our ability to think critically and correctly answer these questions will help boost our confidence in our ability to lead our own lives.

Our ability to think critically by correctly answering these questions will help increase our confidence in our capacity to lead our own lives.

For example, following the same logic as the above sentence, there is the following example in reality: "Cindy always causes trouble at the office. Cindy is a woman. Therefore, women usually cause trouble at the office."

Of course, these things are all wrong. You often see them in the mainstream media, debated by leaders, and becoming ingrained prejudices for many people.

Those things are called fallacies.

Why this is important: We often make logical fallacies, in ways we don't even realize, even when it comes to crucial, life-or-death decisions or beliefs. These arguments are used in political campaigns (X is a good money maker, the government needs money. Therefore, X is needed in the government) or in ethical issues (Bob lied to me, therefore I should lie back to Bob)...

These logical fallacies infiltrate our lives, leading us to make poor decisions about our health, relationships, careers, and much more.

These are issues that we are not taught in school—how to think or solve problems. Instead, we are taught how to copy and memorize everything. And then, we forget it immediately afterward. This poor way of thinking follows us into all the complex problems of life.

4. Self-awareness

The curriculum should include: You might say, "How can one develop self-awareness?" But in reality, this subject can be taught and practiced like any other subject.

Self-awareness is the ability to think about what you think. It's the ability to feel about your own feelings, to have your own perspective.

For example, I might have the thought, "I hate all people named Steve. All people named Steve are bad people."

This is a prime example of bigotry, a simple form of revenge through sweeping generalizations. If you lack self-awareness, you will be prejudiced against superficial values.

But those with full self-awareness will ask themselves: “Why do I hate people named Steve? Is it because my ex-boyfriend was named Steve? Or because my father was named Steve? And am I taking my anger out on all people named Steve in the world? If so, how shameful?”

The ability to perceive one's own thoughts in this way is called self-awareness. Very few people experience such a moment in their lives.

But this can be learned, like learning other things, through practice. Simply ask yourself to think about what you think, feel what you feel, and refine your self-awareness.

Why this is important: Because a high level of self-awareness offers many benefits in life. People who develop this skill plan better, are more disciplined, are more focused, are more in tune with their emotions, make better decisions, and are able to anticipate potential problems ahead.

Self-awareness is a crucial factor in maintaining relationships.

Perhaps you are easily angered or prejudiced, perhaps you are a loner, perhaps you are impulsive or a habitual troublemaker… Whatever the case, we need to understand ourselves and find ways to control and adapt.

5. Skepticism

The curriculum includes topics such as: Why can everything we believe be wrong in some way? Why is memory sometimes unreliable? Why do precise fields like mathematics or physics have unsolvable problems? Why do we often make misjudgments about what makes us happy/unhappy in the past/future? Why do firmly held beliefs often lead to guilt and violence, and not the other way around?

Why is it that everything we believe can be wrong in some way? Why is memory sometimes unreliable?...

Much of today's scientific knowledge is based on research that failed many times in the past until it was finally confirmed as correct...

Why this is important: Most of the good things in life come from periods of uncertainty. Uncertainty sparks curiosity, a desire to explore and test different ideas, and to exchange ideas with others. It makes you more humble and allows you to view others without prejudice.

Most bad things stem from an overconfidence in life: complacency, arrogance, stubbornness, prejudice. People wouldn't drink poison together if they weren't certain of something. Governments wouldn't starve or kill millions of people because of their uncertainty. They do these things because they are absolutely certain of what they are doing...

Life unfolds within a flow of uncertainty. Certainty is merely a set of strategies we employ to navigate that flow. Because education and learning shouldn't end when the textbook is closed or when a degree is obtained, but should accompany us throughout our lives.

According to VNN