I’m what the NPR people refer to as a “Life Long Learner” – I love gathering information and learning new skills. That said, looking back on my elementary and high school education, beyond the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic and typing, much of it was a gigantic waste of time. If I could have designed a core curriculum, knowing what I know now, it would look something like this:
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10. Survival Training
This would encompass an entire semester at one of those places like Outward Bound or the Boulder Outdoor Survival School. It would be mandatory that you demonstrate you could survive on your own in the wilderness. That’s actually still a fantasy of mine…
It’s unlikely my curriculum would ever “fly” with our current education system – but think about it… Wouldn’t you have loved to learn these basic skills back when your brain still had all that wide open space?
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9. Shop
In my day, shop class was for the grease monkeys going into the trades -most of whom now get paid as much as doctors. I could use those skills now – you know – things like basic plumbing and car repair. Leave 10th grade geometry for the future architects of this world… I would rather have learned how to change the oil on my car and repair a leaky faucet.
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8. Public Speaking
Being in a profession that requires me to be onstage has made me very comfortable relating to an audience... but it took me years to develop. From delivering a meaningful and moving toast to explaining your company’s new product rollout, it’s very difficult to get ahead in this world without this particular skill – and it can and should be taught. In my curriculum you wouldn’t be able to graduate without making a cogent and confident speech.
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7. Vegetable Gardening
This is a skill that everyone should have… It’s good for the body, the soul and the pocketbook. I taught myself later in life – and despite all the mistakes I made during the process (not to mention the dirty fingernails), it has brought me an immense amount of joy. Given the uncertainties of our food supply, this is probably the most critical skill a person should have.
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6. Pimsleur Method
I took 10 years of French… 10 years… Perhaps it was my laziness or the method of teaching involved, but much as I could read and write in it competently, the minute someone started jabbering away in French, my mind froze and I had no idea what they were talking about. Using the Pimsleur method has helped that problem immensely.
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5. Basic PhotoShop and Pro-tools
We didn’t have Photoshop or Pro-tools when I went to high school, but these are critical skills in my day-to-day work that I’d wished I’d had drummed into me from the start… It would have saved much weeping and gnashing of teeth involved in teaching myself.
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4. Anger Management
You can’t actually teach someone to be reasonable and compassionate – but you can learn to have a mature argument or heated discussion without turning into a jerk. A critical life skill that took me several years and some good therapy to learn.
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3. Ballroom Dancing
That would be mandatory for all. You’d have to demonstrate that you could dance a foxtrot, a waltz and rhumba with extra points for Tango. This would be part of an overall social program as I think there would be a lot less trouble in this world if people danced a little more.
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2. Basic Money Management
Still not sure I’ve achieved competency in this area. It would have been nice to learn at an early age some basic investment strategies and the importance of balancing your checkbook once in a while.
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1. Home Economics
This would have been a major part of my self-designed curriculum. Did I really need Advance Placement Physics? I don’t think so… In my curriculum, you wouldn’t be able to graduate unless you could cook a great meal from scratch, sew a perfect hemline, iron a man’s button down cotton shirt to starched perfection, wrap a package and get a red wine stain out of a carpet. These things are critical in life.