12 Things I Really Wish We Were Taught In School

    E = mc² really didn't help most of us.

    Ritu Chandiramani
    by Ritu Chandiramani

    BuzzFeed Contributor

    1. How to do taxes.

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    Imagine getting your first salary and realising that ten percent of it is just missing. Doing taxes forms a very important chunk of my life and I would’ve liked to know how it works beforehand, rather than trying very hard to decode what my Chartered Accountant says every month.

    2. Time management

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    Time management essentially gives your life structure. Juggling multiple activities / courses and sometimes falling behind in some of these courses is moderately acceptable in school. However, when you're working, knowing your priorities and meeting deadlines is so incredibly important because there's just no excuse for lagging.

    3. Empathy

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    Being kind to people around you and simply lending a shoulder when someone needs it is a vital quality to possess — and yes, it can be taught. Kids get so competitive in school — trying to be the first to finish tasks or be the favourite student — that teaching basic empathy and kindness becomes important. 

    4. Money management

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    Knowing how to manage your money and creating a budget are necessary skills to have when you go out into the world. When you receive your first salary, you're so happy to have made all this money all by yourself, that you end up spending the entirety of it in a week. This is when having a prior knowledge of money management comes in handy. Budgeting for essentials and saving a part of my salary are things I learned much later than I would've liked, and I wish that changed.

    5. The importance of self-care.

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    You often spiral when you have too many tasks to do and too many places to be. Managing stress and taking out time for yourself are both essential to avoid burnout and eventually get you better results. I wish schools taught us to listen to our bodies and take breaks.

    6. Talking about periods.

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    Let's admit that periods are unavoidable. Whispering about a necessary bodily function and making it seem awful only leads to impressionable teens being embarrassed of their own bodies. That's not okay.

    7. Proper sex education.

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    Sex too, is often unavoidable. Refusing to address it only makes matters worse and leads to horrible outcomes. Proper sex ed is necessary to help teens practice safe sex and make better choices.

    8. How to deal with failure.

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    If you're teaching kids how to compete and how there can only be one winner, it is only logical that kids be taught how to deal with failure. Not everyone wins all the time and failure is an inevitable part of life. Getting demotivated and feeling terrible about yourself when you fail is something nobody should really have to go through.

    9. How credit cards work.

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    No, credit cards are not magic! Credit cards are a boon if you know how to use them properly. But, if you have no idea what you're doing with one, you're going to end up paying a lot more money as "interest" than what you've actually spent.

    10. The importance of sleep.

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    A bad sleeping cycle (no matter how fun it seems) messes with your emotional, physical, and mental well-being. If we were logically taught why sleeping on time is important, we'd be all the better for it.

    11. Basic meal prep and chores.

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    This essentially entails how to not starve or be filthy. Teaching us basic meal prep and doing household chores are all skills we could've used early on, so as to become independent, functional adults. I wish we didn't require Marie Kondo's help to learn something as rudimentary as organisation.

    12. And finally, how to interact during an interview.

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    Interviewing for a job can be a scary process that induces a lot of anxiety. Teaching us how to conduct ourselves in mock interviews or helping us understand how professionalism works outside of school would have certainly been very handy.