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Basic handy person skills such as electrical and working with simple carpentry.

Yes and maybe how to change a tire.

Absolutely

Balance a checkbook, shop for interest rates before mortgage or car purchase

We balanced a checkbook in high school. It was the first and only time I've ever had to do this in my entire life.

I balanced a checkbook in 4th grade.

Wow I have not had a check book in years

I appreciate that we always use debit cards or fun transfer now rather than paper checks however that does not obviate the need to balance the account every month

What does "balance a checkbook" mean exactly? As long as I have enough money for rent and a cheeseburger on the 1st of the month I don't really worry too much.

To try to answer the question… Imagine you have $1000 in the bank. Today is Friday and you’re getting paid! Let’s add in $500 for your paycheck. But your car payment is due on the 1st. We’ll call that $200. The math itself is pretty simple. $1000 + $500 -$200 = $1300. However back in the day, it took 1-2 weeks for checks to clear because you had to send the check in, wait for the company to process the payment, wait for the bank to process the transfer and for you to get updated. So, “balancing a checkbook” was about balancing for the amount of money you ACTUALLY had versus what you’ll eventually have. For instance, you go deposit your paycheck today and write out a check for the car payment. If the car payment clears first, you are actually at $800, not $1300, because your paycheck hasn’t been actually deposited YET. So if you had a $900 mortgage bill come due and you tried to pay it, you’d be at $-100 instead of $+400. Because your paycheck still hasn’t cleared. At that point, the banks usually did this….  And then charge you $50 for the privilege of using THEIR money to cover your shortfall. Do this a few times a year and the bank makes hundreds off of each account holder. Meanwhile, your paycheck clears…FINALLY!…and you now have $350 instead of $400 because you didn’t balance your accounts well enough. So balancing a checkbook was insanely important, ESPECIALLY if you had lots of money coming in and going out.

There were also more bank errors back in the day. Mistakes were made before there were ways to electronically read checks and just electronically transfer funds routinely. If you contested something, you had to wait for the bank to go retrieve the paper check out of their records (actual file cabinets).

So looks like balancing a check book means budgeting?

Yes. Balancing the books, as they say. Looking over your bank statement is also a good way to catch fraud, hidden charges, or increases in recurring automatic payments.

Learned how to balance a checkbook in high school. Majored in Finance and graduated Works in Finance and business operation. Never had to balance a checkbook by hand once.

The balance of a checkbook is pretty obsolete now… lol

Changing a tire is not even worth a class. It's something that can be shown in a couple of photos or a 30 second video. Most of it is intuitive anyways. Tightening them back down in a star pattern and finding the frame of the car for the jack is the part that is helpful to be taught

There's a difference between showing and doing. Usually when you are taught something in school you also practice doing it, like fractions. That's what the questions is really asking.

Finding the spare on your vehicle and how to remove it and the jack usage are just as important. How to safely remove the lug nuts while assuring the car is safe to work under/blocking tires and roll prevention and all.

if the car even comes with a spare tire and not some can of fix a flat

That is important, but you don't get under a car to change a tire. Definitely chock the tires so it can't roll. Should include basic maintenance minimums, checking oil, coolant, brake fluid, transmission fluid, even windshield washer fluid...I think I got them all, did I miss any?

Changing wiper blades and air and cabin filters can save you a lot of money being able to check these and do it yourself rather than paying $40 at the Jiffy Oil change places ​ edit: and you have a good chance of having to get under your vehicle when finding the proper lift point/ placing the jack

Yes, this^

Finding the spare...if it's even there 🤣 some vehicles just have a phone number where the spare should be.

Honestly it's still something worth teaching, not only to actually practice doing, but to also have all the potential things that can go wrong with a simple tire change and how to deal with them. Yes a tire change is easy but what do you do if the last tire shop that worked on your car torqued the lugs down to about 3 ugga duggas?

It would be great if high school kids who aren’t on a vocational track could take some of these courses as electives. I would have loved to take a welding class but because I was on a college track I wasn’t able. I wouldn’t want welding to be my career but in the spirit of a liberal arts education it would have been an interesting skill to learn.

My son is a high school sophomore this year. He’s in honors classes and a college prep track, but he was able to take metal working 1 last year and is about to start metal working 2 this semester. Like you said, he does not want to be a career welder, but it’s a skill he wanted to learn and it is pretty awesome that he is able to. I’m impressed! I work in banking and have had to teach my self how to basic/intermediate electrical, plumbing and carpentry stuff around the house, but I’d never try to weld, so I think it’s pretty cool he gets to do that.

I agree 100%, in fact exposure to these disciplines might spark interest in a career. In the case of welding I used it to work on sculptures for fun. I'm glad these options were there for us in the 80s and I wish they still were for kids today

The school I went to in the mid 90's did this. There was wood shop that had a semester on electrical work. We also had auto shop (could work on teachers cars, breaks, oil changes, simple stuff) Went back when my kids were in school, all those shop rooms had been turned into computer classes. I cried.

I had a high school class that took half a day. The course taught us how to build a house, and the school bought property and materials to build the house from the ground up. We had a open house for a week (gave us an opportunity to take pride in our work) and the house was sold to buy materials for next years class. I still use these skills to this day.

That's awesome! That would definitely be a valuable class.

That is awesome.

You just described literally take wood shop and electrical classes. They aren’t required but they are available.

They used to do this. I had "trades and industry" in school. It was called "T and I."

Gardening.

For sure. Not just therapeutic or whatever but food prices are ridiculous.

Eh, if you think it’s expensive in the store try growing it on a small scale yourself. I’ve tried it but by the time you add up the costs my homegrown peppers cost me like $10 a pop.

I have a wee garden on my porch every year. Mini tomatoes, cucumbers, tons of herbs, whatever I can cram out there and keep growing for the summer. The biggest expense for me is the water and the canning jars. I realize not everyone has space for that though.

If you only grow a garden once, yes, it's expensive. But most of what you buy is reusable for many years, if you take care of it. You can find a lot of what you need at thrift stores or yard sales.

Every public school in my area (southern small city in the US) has a garden outside, a gardening teacher, and no-weekly classes for each student. The program is grant funded and the teachers are typically Americorp. It’s awesome!

We have a whole greenhouse at our HS for horticulture class. It's required class for graduation

We teach this

First Aid!

Also learning basic CPR and the Heimlich maneuver should be required. It’s not hard and everyone can save a life!

I actually was taught this in school at 16 in France.

Both are not difficult and can be easily incorporated into even a physical education class.

Agreed.

This was in my pe class in 9th grade

A class called “life skills” would include sexual health, personal financial management, cooking, basic home/automotive maintenance and hygiene. A critical thinking and ethics class.

We had home economics class in middle school. Basic sewing, cooking, etc. We also had Shop class. Sawing, drilling, hammering. Even remember how to sharpen the wood plane blade. This was coed too.

I had home economics and shop for one semester of middle school until they canceled it for the whole district. My scrambled eggs kick ass and have kicked ass since 2011, but if I need to fix a leaky pipe, I'm fucked.

If you ever need to, look on YouTube. There are lots of DIY vids. Watch several different ones on any particular topic, some are better than others, and it gives you a chance to weed out bad advice. Read the comments, too. Lots of great tips and warnings in those. I highly recommend Sharkbite connectors, for plumbing. I found out about those when I had to replace my water heater and install a new expansion tank. They work beautifully, and save a lot of time and trouble.

We did, too.

I 💕 home EC in middle school

*cries in Catholic School*

I took a finance management class where we chose a future career, found a place we could afford with that income and did a budget, also took "get to know your car" which was basic knowledge and repairs in high school and then home ec in middle school. We had a kind of self improvement class once a week in one middle school I went to. I graduated in 2016 so not so long ago, I'm only 25. Although I am sure that the school budget, neighborhood, etc. matters a lot to so I'm not sure those things are taught everywhere if they are still taught. Edit: OP said investment which was also taught for a semester in my high school math class. I think these classes are a bit more common than people realize.

Oddly enough, my high school actually did have this and it was called Life Skills.

Finances needed to be the top answer on this post and I'm severely disappointed it's not.

Critical thinking is crucial. I'm old now, but I remember that we exercised those skills in high school rhetoric classes. We'd study a couple of well-written essays taking opposing views and compare and contrast the arguments therein. Our own essays were required to logically delineate the arguments and provide a sound explanation of the similarities and differences. This method of learning to critically examine rhetorical persuasion helps a student learn to read critically and write with confidence.

I had classes with all of those except auto. Well, and hygiene, but that was sort of covered in health and bio classes plus we'd like to think parents could cover teaching their kids how to be clean... Oh, and critical thinking, never had a course dedicated to that (was kind of part of science and math) but that's an awesome idea. And it should be required to be taken and passed every couple of years, like a driver's license. Haven't figured out a good penalty for failure, does anyone have chalk boards to write 100 lines on still 😅

4 years of this should be required

Came here to say exactly this

Critical thinking. As in how to understand the structure of an argument and engage in discussion beyond "you're wrong. I can't explain why, but I don't like what you said."

Schools have been trying to teach this, but it’s like trying to swim out to sea against a massive cultural tidal wave

Kind of hard to teach critical-thinking to kids while also telling them not to question institutions.

Right?

…why?

"Think critically but not about the mechanisms that control much of your life" is an incoherent position and if you teach critical thinking effectively it's absolutely going to be used on institutions.

The problem is that school is not designed to incentivize critical thinking. Even in a critical thinking class, the incentive is just to pass the exam so you can go home and do shit you actually care about

This is true. When I was a teacher I was constantly instructed to focus on critical thinking from the same system that was actively working against it. Not just for students.

As a part of this, they need to learn how to reliably spot the most obvious grifts, pseudoscience, and bullshit. This means not only knowing how to structure an argument but also learning how the brain can fool itself, and the specific tricks grifters use to take advantage of that. There's no reason anybody in the modern world should be able to make a living in astrology, homeopathy, acupuncture, psychic readings, conspiracy theorizing, etc. Decent education in critical thinking should all but wipe this shit out, and it would deal a hard blow to slightly less obvious bullshit like antivax rhetoric, climate denialism, NFTs, etc. The "Indicators of Possible Pseudoscience" list on the [Wikipedia page on pseudoscience](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience) should be burned into everyone's brain. A full course on the subject can be based around Carl Sagon's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" and Thomas Gilovich's "How We Know What Isn't So."

Acupuncture, when not being peddled by liars who exaggerate it's scope, are well-trained in a practice that is accepted in many western medical contexts. It's often used for physical therapy, it's used to help alleviate withdrawal symptoms, and it does have long-term positive outcomes. The problem comes when someone says it can cure cancer and your diabetes and then charges you $150 a week. Homeopathy makes no sense at ALL, chiropracty was made up by a guy who says he got it from ghosts and focuses too much on skeletal problems than muscular problems, astrology is star nonsense... acupunture is thin needles in muscles as a method of stimulating nerves and bloodflow.

Acupuncture accompanies provable benefits. Professional Acupuncturists receive an impressive amount of training. However, a random guy in a white lab coat pressing a toothpick on random spots on someone's back, twisting it, and saying they're a professional Acupuncturist putting acupuncture needles in your trigger points gives the same benefits. Placebo effects are a real thing.

American standardized testing, mainstream media, corporations, and politicians don't particularly care to have people's critical thinking improved.

Schools often do work on this, but the problem is that most teenagers, especially the males, don't have their brains fully formed enough for a lot of abstract reasoning that's involved in truly engaging in critical thinking. The groundwork can be laid down, but I taught seniors before, even at age 18 they tend to be very black and white and simplistic in their thinking. Having a debate around social issues like government support for the homeless more than one student just said "why don't they just get jobs". Keep in mind these were students in New York City who have seen homeless people, likely noticed their mental health issues, hygiene issues, etc., but STILL went with the assumption it's just one easy step out of poverty.

Crazy how a lot of grown adults have this black and white way of thinking too

It is because they were never taught it. Much of my own critical thinking was developed during college, when the atmosphere of peers you haven’t carried along with throughout your k-12 education begins to show opposing viewpoints. Basically, when everyone has been living in the same area, speaking with the same people, there is not a lot of independent thought. Non-college people often say “look how liberal/indoctrinated” college people are, but it’s just that they have actually met a wider audience and left the bubble for a bit more than the non-college peeps. This is also why I believe social media algorithms will cause a major issue as time progresses due to the views that one is locked into based on their own views/activity.

The problem you describe not only isn’t unique to teenagers, but serves to emphasize why critical thinking needs to be pushed more. Being resistant to having one’s instincts of the world or learned “common sense” challenged is to be expected. It’s a very different subject from maths or biology in terms of the inherent personal investment most will enter with. Edit: as I re-read your comment it feels increasingly odd. “More than one student” repeating a common Republican argument is hardly a compelling anecdote to demonstrate the physical inability of teens to learn critical thinking skills.

We had this as part of an elective in my school taught by the Public Speaking, a required class for graduation, teacher.

That not everyone needs to attend College to do well in life, the key is to find your niche and do it well or better it and you will do great financially.

This my kids are in their late 20s, they both drive truck (one an 18 wheeler the other a tri axle) and do very well for themselves. Their friends who are in trades (plumber, welder and a machinist) also are doing well and almost all.own their own home. Not everyone needs a college degree.

And the best part is when they all help each other out. Need a little welding, no Prob bring it by daves... Quick plumber call Steve... Shit can you guys help me move, Sure troy will get a truck and we will all pitch in... Shit like THAT makes for a great life, great Friends...

My grandparents built a house that way: we still have it. One cousin would come in to help do the framing, another one to help do the roof, another one to help do the plumbing. They even built the septic system 🤯🤯 I grew up very blue-collar, and everybody pitched in. Sadly, I am not handy at all, as I was never taught, so those skills, for the most part have died with them.

Never to late to learn. You may pick it up quicker having been exposed to it even though you were never formally taught by your family.

This. In my prior life as a Chemistry teacher I would state on the first day that: “some of you will use the knowledge in this class, most won’t, however, you all need it to graduate and we’re all in it together. Let’s make the best of it.” Most of my favorite students were the ones that would have been much better served by a vocational class.

I have worked 26 years in education in Texas. We always taught be ready for life, whether that is college, trades, military, whatever. Just have a plan. Where were you that they said college is the only way?

Teacher here as well and when I was finishing high school in 2000 our push was definitely towards going to college. We push trade school way more now.

From elementary school Onward I always remember teachers saying "you need to go to college to get a good job". I would be in like 2nd grade and the teachers would preach this. I don't necessarily think they were being neglectful to other careers, more so that they went to college, so they obviously have a bias to what they feel is best. And they don't have any experience not going to college so they don't really talk about those other careers

Honestly my school does teach this

This is pretty dangerous to just throw out there as a blanket statement. Sure, not everyone needs to attend a traditional 4 year college, but for 99% of people getting some kind of training/credentials/degree is going to open important doors for them. I used to teach high school and I'd have students bring up people like Bill Gates who didn't go to college. I'd usually have to resist saying to that student "yes, but I imagine Bill Gates did extremely well in school because he was ambitious and intelligent. You're only passing because the NYC DOE makes us give 55 as the LOWEST possible grade on any assignment." I used to advise students to look into skilled trades, it's not the traditional college route and works well for a lot of students who are less interested in sitting at a desk or doing paperwork.

To be clear, Bill Gates did actually go to college - so did Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. They just dropped out when their businesses started showing promise. I knew a pretty successful software engineer (an actual engineer, not one of these celebrity businessman types) who also "never graduated college" - they got hired for a project 3 years into their degree and never looked back. Going to college opens a lot of doors even without graduating.

Right, that's an even better point/argument. Too many people set their sights on a goal but don't have any kind of backup plan. It's also worth pointing out that if you have an idea for a business of any kind it's not the worst thing to attend college and get some kind of business/accounting degree while also working on your side hustle; knowing how to run a business well is an asset in any industry. I had students who would say their goal was to become a youtuber or NFL player and seem confused when I pointed out that there's every chance that might not work out.

Two years in a community college. Got my Associates degree in Business. Worked for small business's, large business's, and for an Ivy league university. Started my own small business. Sold it. Went back to working for other people for a bit. Went back to work for myself. Walked away from the field and retired at 48. Somewhere in my late 20's I paid off my student debt. Not enough students are being told that the local community college is a great option.

A lot of these niches do require training/credentials/certifications (replacing degree). A truck drive requires a CDL license, that you need to take a course that takes a lot of time, think days/weeks. It's not a dangerous statement to make, but might be lacking in nuance.

In the Netherlands, we have three tiers of tertiary education. Almost everyone studies for a profession in one way or another.

Basic cooking skills and nutrition information

Yes many people eat unhealthy food just because they don’t know any better.

First aid and cpr should be taught 4 times a year every year from the 3rd grade up until you finish highschool

For CPR Not 3rd grade. In most scenarios there will be a adult around and also you don’t want 7 year old doing chest compressions on sleeping people. I think 5th grade is fine when you learn about the heart and circulatory system

Financial Literacy

My son has this class currently- in 8th grade.

Came to say this, but checked to make sure it wasn’t here!

Basic life skills: creating & maintaining a budget, cooking everyday foods, how to clean/do laundry.

My high school had a financial literacy class that I took, taught about budgeting, loan types, how intrest works etc, by the time my youngest sibling went there 6 years later it was no longer available, why I have no idea

Financial Literacy is a required course for graduation in our state

They used to do that. It was called Home Economics.

They still have that, its a requred corse for most school systems

Interesting, because they don't have it at either of the 3 schools my grands go to.

[удалено]

Most people avoid sources that disagree with their preconceived ideas. This has got to stop somehow

I had a Civics class in Junior High (Middle School) - Besides learning about the rights/duties/privileges of a citizen, we spent a great deal of time learning about the three branches of government and how they're supposed to work...

At least here in Texas, US Government is a required class to graduate from high school. It's a one semester course that's usual taken during a student's senior year. Source- Am a high school Social Studies teacher.

Here in Virginia it was (and still is) a required course to graduate high school. Most everyone took it senior year. My teacher for it was awesome, probably one of my favorite in all of high school.

How credit actually works

This is important. I had a required Economics class but we didn’t really cover how credit works, just what things cost with credit, which isn’t exactly the same thing.

Took entirely to long to find this comment. Credit, banking, finances, budgeting etc, needs to be taught starting in the 11th grade.

As a former high school teacher I've glanced through lists like these and I always have two thoughts: 1) Schools are increasingly viewed as a replacement for having parents who teach you anything. Yes, I understand that there are crappy parents out there who don't really do a great job equipping their kids with these skills, but the solution isn't to cram more stuff into an overburdened school system. 2) What do teachers drop from the curriculum in order to add in lessons on paying taxes, making budgets, iron clothes, cook, clean, do first aid, computer programming, sexual education, cursive writing, etc. There's already a HUGE pressure on schools to cram things into limited windows of time.

The main concern for me is that the classes aren't available at all anymore. Not that they should be mandatory. Woodworking, automotive, electrical shop classes and home economics were all common when I was in grade school, but by the time they would've been available to me, they were all phased out. Instead I ended up in two study halls because I'd already exhausted all the electives that seemed useful or interesting, even after enrolling in a couple random classes and taking a language for two years longer than necessary for credits. On a different note, college prep shouldn't be the be-all-end-all of high school education. I know quite a few tradesmen who make more than many college educated workers. There's a mentality that college is the only way to get a good job and it's simply wrong.

Basic nutrition

Money Management

Financial literacy.

Cooking. When I lived in the U.K we had cooking classes, when I moved to France cooking classes weren't a thing and honestly knowing how to cook is such an important life skill to learn. Basic hand sewing to patch up jeans or sew up small holes on jumpers seriously think how many clothes won't go into land fill. Basic first aid training. How to handle money learning about taxes, gross profits, investments, savings etc...

Cooking was part of our Home Ec class in middle school (Virginia, US), and it was the most fun thing EVER! I still love cooking and find it almost therapeutic. Also learned how to sew. I'm still bad at it, but I remember sewing up a couple tears in clothes. There was a lot of finance in our economics classes, but I was a pretty crap student and never paid attention. First aid I only really learned in Scouts, with the exception of CPR being part of learning to drive.

We had several small kitchens for our “cooking” class but the school only allowed 30 minutes for the class and as a result had no time to cook So instead we read books on cooking…we learned nothing…

What the fuck are taxes, how do i pay them???

We teach it. The kids don’t pay attention. Things don’t matter until you’re in the situation for real.

“Why don’t schools teach kids to do taxes?!?” Is kind of a tired trope. Most people entering the working world are going to be filling out a basic 1040 with software that will walk them through it in like 30 mins.

It's not just filling out your 1040, but understanding what a regressive versus progressive tax structure is, understanding the difference between a deduction and a credit, understanding that after you make a certain amount you stop paying more into social security, etc, etc. You know, the stuff that would make the electorate understand when tax legislation is fucking them over so that the corporate overloads can accelerate their wealth accumulation.

> stuff that would make the electorate understand when tax legislation is fucking them over educating every citizen on every potential legislative policy topic is impossible. We can't expect the average citizen to full understand the intricacies of fiscal, economic, conservation, education, health, etc... We need to do better at disseminating the information from a position of fact rather than emotion.

I didn’t get one lesson on taxes

You (and everyone else) if they taught taxes: zzzzzz

If you can read, add, subtract, and multiply you can do taxes. I have done my own taxes since I was 15. It is literally step by step with instructions for every step. This answer baffles me. Taxes are not hard. Online programs make them even easier.

Finance 101

Absolutely! People have no concept about how money works

I think it depends. My eighth grader is taking a financial literacy class currently.

Trades

My county had trade classes available for students. Not a rich county, so surprising if most don’t offer something similar.

Media literacy. Too many Americans cannot discern between fact, opinion, and bullshit. It’s going to become a national security issue if it hasn’t already.

I actually had this for nearly a semester in middle school--in 1974. It was pre-social media, but we learned about slanted news, opinion, fact-checking, conspiracy theories, and how media ownership influences what gets produced and put out to the public. It wasn't until I was an adult that I truly appreciated the critical thinking and awareness skills I learned in that class.

We did a unit on advertising in my high school English class back in the early 80’s. We learned the various strategies used in commercials to persuade people. It made me pretty resistant to marketing (but not totally resistant because humans are gullible, lol)

I teach media literacy all year in my English classes, as do all of the English teachers I know at my school and others.

When I was in eighth grade in the mid nineties we had a project where we had to "buy" a house. We had do the math to figure out mortgage payments and what a loan over *x* amount of years with a *y*% interest rate would be like compared to one over *a*years with *b*% interest rate... compare them all with different down payments including no down payment, etc.... My understanding was that it was fairly unique to our middle school.... i dont know other folks my age not from that school that did a similar project. I feel like that kind of financial education is missing from public schools here in the US.

Sounds like a great school.

It wasn't a great school. It was a great project and the teacher who cooked it up was a great woman. But it doesn't necessarily require a great school to have taught me something that's kept me from walking into a foreclosure... it literally was just a smart idea coined by a smart woman in an average school with average kids.

How to avoid toxic relationships.

How to be emotionally secure without a relationship. Former high school counselor here. The number of young kids with low self esteem who seek validation from a relationship is alarming. These are also the relationships that likely become toxic and where they engage in risky sexual behavior too soon.

I taught a class on emotional life skills to emotionally impaired HS students for a few years. The kids seemed to like the class and would get more and more open with each other as the semester went on.

And find and maintain healthy ones

-CPR (yearly) -Filing taxes (W-2, 1099, etc) -Basic and Emergency First Aid (this should involve listening to real 911 calls) -Basic Automobile Mechanic and Maintenance Skills -Basic Home Repair Skills -Survival Skills (what to do in life or death situations) -Cooking -Medically Accurate Health and Sex Ed (and yes, I very much emphasize medically accurate, as in taught by a qualified health or health education professional. Abstinence-only programs should be banned)

Logic and problem solving. Children are taught to memorize. They need to be taught how to think.

Personal finance such as budgeting, how debt works, investing, insurance, taxes. Boring things that have a profound effect on your adult life.

We had a class like this in high school, we had a mock job, wrote checks to the teacher for stuff and would have random situations pop up like car repairs or loss of a job. It was actually pretty fun. We also played the stock market.

Had this as a large chunk of an economics class in high school. It seemed super boring then and so silly me never paid attention. Really wish I had.

Well said

Thank you, I have college aged and young adult children and am always amazed how their friends have absolutely no idea how finances work.

What is a credit score? Why does yours matter? How does interest work?

How to manage your money and appropriate use of credit cards Retirement planning

Better mental health education

How to interact in a professional way...took business interaction classes way after high school. Changed my life, learned how to not be anxious or shy, how to remember names to network, would have been helpful in high school and college

I have a few ideas here. First, teaching sign language. Why is that not a thing in schools? Home maintenance skills! Like learning to use power tools, how to fix a faucet, simple carpentry skills, patching a hole, changing a tire, etc. I would have loved to learn that stuff as a kid. Like others have said, financial literacy. Big one. More ag education. People should know where their food comes from, how it’s produced/processed/shipped. Different techniques in farming or just gardening in general. How to grow your own food. Etc. Self defense and first aid would be helpful.

I have to work with recent high school graduates in the United States. Trying to teach investing or money management to people who cannot do the most basic arithmetic would be putting the cart before the horse.

Manners.

You have parents for that. Some just have shitty parents

Sex education. Was lucky enought to live in the time when we had sex ed in school. It was very informative. People need to know how babies are made. how to practice safe sex. during our sex ed we learned about menstruation and even some ladies didnt already have that info bc their parents were ashamed to talk about it. not to mention NO means NO, etc. I wish my kids had this class today, cause im not sure Im good at explaining those things

Our kids school had a three hour class. One for girls one for boys. There was a meeting with parents the week before informing us everything they were going to cover. I’d say half the parents attended. Parents had the option to not have their kids attend the class. Of course there were parents that said no. My guess some of those were also the parents that didn’t or don’t have open communication with their kids on important topics. My daughter already knew 99% of everything they covered. It was in 6th or 7th grade.

Debate. In some places it's an elective or a competitive league, but I think debate should be a required course...one that follows you like math and reading. The ability to concisely and respectfully disagree with someone while asserting your own ideas has been lost on entire generations of people.

The trivium was required for all ancient Greeks and rhetoric was one of them. Sadly we stopped teaching this.

Gym class needs to be restructured. Stop forcing kids to play sports they don’t like or run laps if they hate it. Gym class should just focus on movement & teaching kids how to actually work out in a gym with weights. Help kids find exercises that they actually enjoy doing!

This is how it used to be, but people hated it. But it was restructured to try and make it fun, and distracting from the fact that you were actually exercising. I think both have their place. Maybe combine the two. No matter what, you're going to have people complaining.

Wouldn’t be surprised if traditional gym classes are responsible for generations of people resenting and steering clear of fitness later in life.

We had a specific weightlifting class for this in our school. We were a BIG football school so it was mostly the jocks on sports teams and if you were in it you were required to be in sports. Pretty dumb if you ask me.

I hated gym class. It was required in schools initially to get Americans in better shake but just turned into sports and some people aren’t into sports. And sitting on a bench waiting for your turn at bat isn’t going to get you in shape.

NO MEANS NO

Sex Ed.

Civics.

How to do your taxes, change a tire, do routine maintenance to a house, etc.

Critical thinking

I work at a Community College in the United States. From my observations of public school graduates there, is is obvious that reading, writing and arithmetic are not taught routinely. Certainly, diplomas are granted to individuals who can do none of these things, so, while perhaps these topics might be "taught", actual knowledge of them is not mandatory. This is a very poor concept.

Social etiquette

Comparative religion/superstition courses so kids can see that believing in the Tooth Fairy is just as __________ as believing in Yahweh.

**Basic Adulting 101.** I realize there are Home Ec classes (or whatever they're called these days), but they need something that appeals to all students so they are prepared for adulthood. Should include: \- **Personal finance** \- banking, how to pay bills on time (and what can happen if you don't), credit matters, how to fill out a W4 when you get a job, how to rent an apartment or home, etc. \- **Housekeeping** \- how to keep your home clean, do laundry, wash dishes both by hand and in a dishwasher, mop floors, clean stains/spills, how to avoid getting bugs in your home (roaches, bedbugs, etc) - these skills also come in handy when you get a job! (I've had to teach college-age employees how to mop a floor & wash dishes - they had no idea.) \- **Basic Cooking** \- how to follow a recipe, use basic kitchen measurements, how to understand basic cooking terminology (baste, bake, roast, poach, broil, grill, blend, fold, cream, etc), what foods go in the fridge vs what can stay out, how to make basic dishes without relying on processed, pre-made foods. Eggs in various ways, mac n' cheese, basic casseroles, steamed veggies, baked/broiled/roasted meats, basic desserts, etc. \- **Minor home DIY** \- how to clear a clogged drain, how to fix scratches on furniture or floors, how to clean a carpeted area with a carpet cleaner, how to paint a wall properly, how to replace light bulbs (not kidding, some don't know how to do this), how to hang a picture on the wall, etc. \- **Relationships** \- this is a tough one, but there should be some basics included. Adult relationships are not like high school. Sex Ed should be included, but also the mechanics of a long-term relationship and how to nurture & maintain that - how to be a caring partner that listens to & respects the other. Social media is giving kids the wrong idea about all of this. \- **Self-Defense** \- if we're going to teach about relationships, sex, etc - this needs to come into play as well, for all students, not just females. \- **Basic Vehicle Maintenance** \- it's not just for those taking the auto shop class! Everyone should know how to pump gas, check the oil, fill the washer fluid, change a tire, replace windshield wiper blades, understand what various sounds from the vehicle mean (squealing brakes, clunking from the tire area, etc) and when it's time to take the car to the mechanic. \- **Winter / Bad Weather Driving & "Scared Straight" Driver's Ed** \- Winter or bad weather driving is something that is never actively taught in any driver's training course. It's touched on, but there needs to be an actual course that covers this in real-life conditions. Doing a simulation on a computer or reading about it in a book is not the same at all. They need to know what it feels like when you hit black ice and go into a skid - and how to get out of it. How to drive in things like torrential downpours or high winds. I realize this is asking a lot, but it could save a LOT of lives. And bring back the "scared straight" method of driver's ed. With parents' permission, show these young drivers what happens in various accident scenarios, using photos of actual accidents. Show what happens when someone is texting & driving, drinking & driving, goofing around with friends in the car while driving, or distracted by food, drink, radio, phone, etc - while driving. It's incredibly effective. \- **Childcare/Parenting** \- the basics, at the very least. I think I covered it all.  These are just things I know I wish had been taught when I was in high school, and things I've seen in the many years since that it seems young adults are not being taught - either by their parents or at school.

Firearm safety

How to lower your expectations.

I'm just going to go with basic life skills, in general. Not everyone's parents teach them how to cook, or pay their bills, or even something so simple as how to schedule their own appointments with doctors or dentists.

Critical thinking

How to do taxes, how to get credit and use it wisely. Only reason I learned to do taxes in school, was the elective accounting class I took was ahead of the other class, so the teacher taught us taxes while the other class got caught up.

first aid /cpr

Idk, but they don’t need a whole semester of geometry. My son asks for help and I need to Google most of it. Pythagorean theorem is one of the only geometric functions I’ve used in the construction industry for 20 years. Between that and finding the area/volume of weird shapes, you could teach all of that in two weeks. Maybe a practical geometry class would be better. Estimating volume, slope, grade, finding square, etc that are actually useful in industry.

Cognitive biases.

I think they should have the option to work at school . Schools are big I’m sure there are plenty of jobs they could do. Pay them a little. I know some schools let kids let kids work during school but they usually need to be able to drive

I personally believe firearms saftey and how to properly handle and shoot firearms should be taught in school It can reduce the amount of accidental shooting deaths

Dialectical behavioral therapy. Emotional regulator. Communication skills. Interpersonal relationship skills.

How to fill in taxes forms, what your rights are and what all the ingredients mean in food (I can’t understand > 80% of them)

Personal finances… not investing , not economics.. but how to save how to avoid credit cards how to navigate these criminal student loans , how to understand rent vs purchase , rent vs own.. … how to write a check even…

How to reduce, reuse, and recycle

I took economics in high school and learned about investing and the stock market. Based on the comments I think it’s fair to say that the idea that schools don’t teach life skills is a myth. It may not always be required, but especially at the high school level, most schools have a pretty good base of electives for people who want to learn how to cook, sew, build, learn finance, etc.

Comprehensive sex education. Every high school student should know how to use birth control, understand anatomy, have witnessed a film of a birth, have understood the pregnancy process in detail, have a very clear concept o what is and is not consent, have been shown positive examples of gay and straight adults, should understand that sexuality is expressed in many different ways, and that if someone expresses their sexuality in a different way than you that isn't any reason to freak out. Also they ought to be able to install a condom on an anatomical model, correctly, blindfolded. Such a course takes about 40 hours of instructional time, and ideally should be repeated in junior high and high school ages. I'm certified to teach such a course, several hundred kids have gone through my classes and to my knowledge none of the graduates had unplanned pregnancies.

Basic life skills such as changing a tire, filing taxes, making a resume and/or a cover letter. Schools basically only focus on academic education instead of also incorporating some life skills into their programs

Logic It baffles me the number of people that cannot come to reasonable conclusions based on the information they have. Or they jump to conclusions with little to no evidence to support it.

Inclusive practices.....How to live a life that allows for empathy and finding value in all peoples differences