There are so many things that I should have been taught in school. Obviously teaching time is limited, but maybe instead of the entirely useless period of "Religious instruction", they could have had one period per week on "Things you need to know."
Maybe many of these should be taught by parents, but not all parents are as good as they could be. So what would I have in the syllabus of this course?
In Maths: how to estimate (how many bricks do you need to build a house?) and approximate.
In English: Replace "how to parse a sentence" with "How to write in a way that can most easily be read".
And in the general "Life skills" course that would replace "Religious instruction":
How and why to clean your teeth (see previous blog post).
How to ride a bicycle.
Important things to know when driving a car.
Critical thinking and scepticism.
How to choose your bank, and how to open a bank account.
How credit cards work.
Alcohol and its effects.
And similar stuff.
Perhaps a lesson on how to filter politicians lies when an election is due (America and Britain).
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