What life skills do you think should be taught in school?

This was a question posed by the Twitter member “World of Engineering”. What follows are some of the responses that had high “likes”. This is sort of like a mini focus group (although they have 1.7 million members.) Many of these needs we address within Scouting but today’s parents might not know that we do.

What life skills do you think should be taught in school?

• Basic sewing, basic diet information about healthy food, cooking, first aid, how to take vitals and what they mean, basic exercise/stretching, injury/disease avoidance, caring for very young or old people (I’m a nurse, like you hadn’t noticed) (319 likes)

• Personal finance should be mandatory – how to save, budget and invest. Statistics, economics, multi-digit mental math (none of this memorize or show your work BS), basic home repairs, cooking (74 )

• Personal finance, understanding pay stub deductions, credit score, loans, just how to be fiscally responsible. (84)

• Logical reasoning (e.g. common fallacies) and statistics. (1,152 likes)

• Filing taxes Job interview skills Relationships Parenting Changing a tire & car maintenance Home maintenance Insurance Entrepreneurship Time management Sales and negotiation Stress management (139)

• A class on “decision making in real life” and the biases that govern it (144)

• How to do taxes, how to repair cars, how to cook, just to name a few (118) (a response included: Life Skills should start in 5th grade. )

• How to survive in wild life. How to light a fire, how to protect their selfs from wild animals, how to find simple foods to survive or how to find fresh water. Imo after these lessons they will not cry for every simple things. (116)

• Life essentials, not everyone has parents who can explain everything for their kids… (154)

• Civics. Defense of democracy. The many ways to cook an egg. Basic electrical circuits and house wiring. Plumbing repairs wouldn’t hurt. How to clean a home. How to be kind. (8)

• CPR and first aid, looking after your finances, driving lessons followed by a advanced driving course, are just some. Probably more importantly, get them to think for themselves, and think outside the ‘box’, let them use their own imagination. (30)