The two things I wish I learned in school
But didn’t
It has been a while since I was in school. This might have changed since then, but I remember learning things by heart just for the tests. After the tests, I’ve never used that information again. In today’s world, you know enough if you are able to find answers. My everyday example would be: I do some coding almost every day, but I can’t do everything from the top of my head. I’m not even trying to. There’s too much to learn, and the languages keep getting updated all the time, so I don’t think it’s necessary. What’s important is that I know where to find the right code, and how to implement it.
How often do you use the information “what’s the name of the third biggest river in Italy” in your life? And do you really need to use your brain capacity knowing that? Or is it enough that you can get the answer, when needed, by taking your phone from your pocket and finding the answer on Google?
Instead, I would love if we would learn about these two things, as they are with us throughout our lives (either in a good or bad way, by doing them correctly or by ignoring them):
Nutrition
More about nutrition. Learning to read the nutrition labels and roughly understanding them, learning what good fats are, learning roughly how much protein/carbs/fat you should eat (also when doing certain sports X times per week), learning about sodium and electrolytes when it comes to hydration, etc.
Just the basic stuff. These are things that I’ve needed in my life. And no, not just when training for an Ironman. This information is also useful e.g. when playing a round of golf in the middle of the summer, steadily consuming electrolytes and some carbs throughout the round. Or even just walking around a city on vacation.
I realize those might be deep dives into the subject. For the broader audience, it would probably be better just to learn what good and bad foods are, and why. What happens if you keep eating bad food throughout your life?
I know most kids and teenagers wouldn’t care about this, but as we get older and (hopefully) realize that we need to care about those things, we would at least know the basics. Or we would know we have heard them, and it would be easier to find the information.
Investing
I’ve mentioned this one in some other posts, but it’s worth mentioning again. I wish there would have been some course that dove a bit deeper into investing. Wouldn’t have to be too complex, but the example Tony Robbins gives would be a good start:
Take someone who invests eight years till he’s 27 and invests a total of $28,800, or $300 a month, and then just leaves it there — doesn’t add another penny. He’ll have nearly 2 million when he retires at 65 if the market continues to compound like it has (at 10 percent or more annually on average).
If his buddy doesn’t start till he’s 28 and he invests $300 a month, he’ll have invested $140,000 by the time he retires at 65. But his compounding returns will end up at almost $300,000 less than his friend.
– Tony Robbins
$300 a month is a lot when you’re in high school or college, but I think that just hearing (and understanding) this quote would make you think about investing a bit more. Maybe doing your own calculations and ending up investing $50 or even $20 a month would be a great start.
Also learning where you can invest, like banks or “private” sites/apps. And learning about the different options you can invest in, like stocks, bonds, ETFs, properties, etc. Just the basic stuff, where’s there more risk, and where the returns can be greater.
I understand that these thoughts might be quite controversial. When we’re in school, we don’t think about what we eat or about investing. Health issues (usually) appear later in life, and we don’t make money that we’re willing to invest. The way I see it, these could be implemented as gymnastics — scratching the surface of different sports. I didn’t become a professional athlete from the gymnastics lectures, but it got me into some new sports and I gained some knowledge that has been necessary for me.
