As a teacher for a decade. Read a clock, understand geography, science activities, history activities. We teach out of a manual now, and it’s all so the admins can jerk off to higher scores for ELA and Math.

Cooking, each generation is losing the skill.

• financial literacy
  • teach them what money means and what their time is worth
• philosophy
  • teach them about multifaceted perspectives, there isn’t good vs evil but multiple shades of gray
• resiliency
  • impose upon them that failure only happens when you learn nothing from your mistakes, everything else is just a setback
• health and medical
  • teach them about their body, what it means to eat nutrient rich meals, and first aid
• self-reliance
  • when you’re the only person with a clue, you’re your only hope, be your own advocate and rely on your own skills and judgment

all the other things like ethics, empathy, emotional IQ, constructive thought, etc will fall into place with a basic understanding of the above. the point is to challenge them and provide a support system for when they fall.

Financial literacy and responsibility, life skills: laundry, dishes, vacuuming, hygiene, cooking and recipe reading. General well being, teach them to be somewhat physical regularly and exercise with them to promote it more so.

Resiliency. From a military perspective, if you care, I was told that generals are complaining about a lack of resiliency. People go to boot camp and make a mistake but they don’t have the resiliency to fix their mistake and move on.

I think it comes from parents not wanting their kids to go through any bad experiences. They need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. I have noticed it with my family, but I don’t have any kids so who am I to make judgements.

Critical thinking skills - they’re actually very difficult to teach and constantly incorporating them into everyday life is super important

Schools are obsessed with academics because they tend to be more easily measurable. Therefore, they are spending less time building character, morals, and thinking skills. Teaching them how to be a good person is more important than ever.

A more well rounded perspective of safe sex.

For instance:

• An overview of sex toys, and how to use them safely. This might be controversial, especially if I mention that if I had a teenage daughter, I would purchase for her a small, non vibrating dildo (which I would place in a discreet place alongside condoms and lube). My reasoning is that I know from experience that teenage girls can be just as dumb and horny as teenage boys, and I’d rather my daughter be able to explore her body safely than to use unsafe things such as hairbrush handles and marker pens.

• More discussion on the pleasure aspect of sex. For instance, how many women require clitoral stimulation in order to reach orgasm, either through manual stimulation or a vibrator. I wouldn’t supply a vibrator, but I would mention this in order to emphasise that each person is different in what they prefer, and that a good sexual partner is someone who helps you to explore that.

• I would briefly mention anal sex, if only because it’s quite prominent in porn nowadays, and porn cuts out the extensive prep required, such as lubricant and gradually working up to things. I’d mostly emphasise the need for lubricant/prep, and that STDs are transmitted more easily through anal sex, so condoms are essential. One of the other things I’d like to imply (or state outright, even) is that straight men can enjoy being the receptive partner for anal sex, and this doesn’t reflect on their sexuality.

• When I was a teenager, one of the most useful things I stumbled across online was a gallery of people’s genitals in a non sexual context. In particular, I was astounded at the diversity in how vulvas look. I’d find a link to something like that.

This is an illustrative list, not exhaustive. It’s a moot point as I don’t intend to have kids anyway (and I’m even on the waiting list to be permanently sterilised). However, I think that my own early sexual experiences would have been a lot safer if I had been provided this kind of information

Emotional regulation and understanding. Most people never learn this either at schools or elsewhere.

That being agreeable is one of the greatest cheats in life. No matter how much you know on something, or how smart you are, if your personality sucks you won’t get very far.

So many talented and skilled people I know failed because they just would not work with other people very well. It’s extremely rare to be an individual talent skilled enough to overcome that barrier, so at least work on yourself a little bit so you don’t die from pride.

This.

and for elementary school

I teach all of my kids that “no” is a complete sentence. I want them to be very conscious of consent, but I also want them all to respect their own wishes.

Unrelated, I also teach them all how to throw a good punch and keep their god damned hands up and chin down as soon as I think they have enough self control not to abuse it.

Go for the jugular

The importance of savings and investments, especially when you’re young.

How to be kind.