How much of what you learned in school do you actually use in the real world? A new survey asked 2,000 people, and the average answer was 37%.
That means we think about two-thirds of the stuff we learned was basically useless knowledge. Here are the 10 real-world skills we WISH we’d been taught instead . . .
1. Money management and budgeting.
2. How to do your taxes.
3. How to manage your emotional wellbeing and mental health.
4. Understanding credit cards and student loans.
5. How to negotiate.
6. Time management.
7. How to fix stuff around the house.
8. Relationship and conversational skills.
9. Car repair and car maintenance.
10. How to find a job.
The survey also asked people to name the most USELESS things they were forced to learn in school.
If you’re a scientist or math teacher, these might come in handy. And some people may argue the benefits of having a base knowledge of this stuff. But you probably don’t use it unless you’re helping your kids with THEIR homework . . .
1. The Pythagorean theorem to figure out the dimensions of a triangle.
(The equation is A-squared, plus B-squared, equals C-squared.)
2. Knowing that Pi is 3.14.
3. Memorizing the periodic table of elements in chemistry.
4. Learning the different types of rocks . . . sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous.
5. Learning the parts on an atom.
6. Learning what mitochondria is . . . a.k.a., the “powerhouse of a cell.”
7. Naming all of the presidents in order.
8. Learning about osmosis. (It’s the, quote, “process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one.” Now you know.)
9. Learning how to make paper snowflakes in elementary school.
10. Learning about photosynthesis in plants.
But as I look at this, I realize that the top list is what we learn as we go along, the bottom list is the stuff that could lead us into really cool jobs…and when you have a cool job that pays good money, everything else falls into place.
PAT RIVERS
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