What do you wish you'd been taught in school?

[Storyteller.]

Whether it be subjects, skills, or information, I'm sure we all have some things we wish we'd been taught in school. So, what are some of yours?

[PSY]

I wish I had learned more about taxes and investments. I took an economics class during my senior year of high school, but it only covered the "basics." Sure, it's nice to know about "supply and demand," but that doesn't tell me how to determine which tax form I need, or whether it's better for my fiancé to pay off his student loans as quickly as possible or make the minimum payments and invest his money elsewhere (and where/how to invest that money).

[Gingerbread Latte]

-How to budget and handle money
-Information about buying/renting properties. (Pesky letting agencies love screwing students over since they're fresh out of home and don't have a clue what their rights are)
-We did a bit on interview skills and applying for jobs but I felt like it wasn't enough

There's probably more that I'm forgetting but I can't remember anymore right now.

[Moxie.]

Budgeting is a big one for me. My online shopping issues currently trump any budgeting skills that I have, so I always end up sad and poor in between paychecks.

Budgeting/handling money, definitely!

[Lelola]

Budgeting is good.

Another is some sort of practical job skills.

[¯|_(ツ)_|¯]

Chemistry.

Things about money/checkbooks/finances/banking/etc.

[Coffee.]

I must agree with others, money is definitely something that they did not focus on enough.
Also, knowing what skillsets are actually important for the "real world" rather than GPA being praised as the predictor of all success. Without the ability to be social, GPA won't get you far.

[Rain~]

I agree with the others, and it would have been nice to be taught basic politics and world issues.

[Pirouette]

I definitely agree, we should learn some budgeting and more about finance stuff since economics classes at school don't really go into that much. O also want to learn some computer programming too and my school doesn't really offer any classes on that.

[Doodle.]

I agree with budgeting. They should have also taught us that being gay/bisexual is completely normal in sex education too.

[Kate*]

Taxes, or at least what information goes where on which form(s)
The basics of insurance and how to buy it (what the terms mean and what's considered a good deal). I'm aging off my dad's coverage in May and I'm completely clueless about having to get my own.

[Melody Pond]

I agree with everyone else really with more practical life lessons like....

• Housing - Tenancy agreements, mortgages, lease holders, what to look out for in houses (dodgy landloards, contracts, being ripped off, damp, structural damage)
• Jobs - Pensions, contracts, interviews and applications, different options other than university (apprenticeships etc)
• Money - Budgeting, taxes, bank accounts, savings accounts, loans (APR etc), credit cards, insurance (life, contents, house etc)
• Practical skills - DIY (how to change a plug, change a fuse etc), basic first aid, basic sewing skills and clothing repair skills, better sex education with more about relationships.
• Academic skills - referencing: In high school essays didn't have a reference list or in text references so in Uni it took a while just to get the hang of Harvard referencing, finding reliable sources and peer reviewed journals. I lost marks on essays in first year due to referencing and I feel it should be introduced earlier.

We kind of touched on bits of this in school but I don't feel enough was done, for example I did first aid in Health and Social care but you only learnt it if you did that lesson and in textiles we learnt how to use a sewing machine and how to hand sew but it was more about making big fancy dresses when it would have been more useful to learn how to alter the hem on trousers etc.

I also wish we had a wider choice of languages, the only option was French in my school and I wish I could have learnt BSL. I did BSL 101 in college as an enrichment programme but I wish I could have completed the Level One qualification as it is really expensive to do.