For a person to become a truly independent and capable grown up, they need to work on themselves and do more when it comes to getting ready for life than just attend school regularly. Although improvements are constantly being introduced to the educational system, it’s still not nearly enough.
It’s a big world out there, and it will throw various challenges your way. You need to prepare yourself for them – you wouldn’t believe how many graduates have difficulties with very simple tasks like paying the bills, for example.
Neglecting this piece of advice will most certainly leave you confused and discouraged to make it on your own, and I know you don’t want to be one of those people who comes back running to their parent’s house only months after school is done. So, check out the following five pointers related to different areas of resourcefulness you should focus on.
It Suffocates Curiosity
The lucky among us have some affinities already developed and school simply helps us learn about them in more detail, but those who still haven’t discovered their talents spend their school years just wandering from one class to another.
The general problem with classes and lessons is in saturation – the materials that professors are trying to teach you, which you later need to study so that you can pass your tests, are rather extensive. Considering that fact, even that little curiosity students have gets suffocated.
In order to avoid this, you should never stop developing your skills and working on your talents, because that’s exactly what you’re meant to do in life and no amount of unnecessary school material should take it away from you.
Methods are Unadjusted
Just a small number of elite schools are testing and later applying revolutionary teaching methods, and they are not available to the wide public because of one simple reason – they are very expensive. There must have been a wrong turn in the history of mankind where everyone decided that it’s just fine for education to have a ridiculously high price.
Besides, the forms of tests and assignments based on which students get their grades are old and dated, like essays – ask your teachers and professors when was the last time they wrote one. Chances are their answer won’t be yesterday, so why is it that we spend so much time learning about the proper way to write essays, when this skill is almost completely useless later in life?
There’s not much we can do about it in a short period of time, but what you can do is explore your options. Not all schools are like this, so my suggestion is to do some serious research when deciding where you should continue your education because it’s not a matter of days or weeks, but years.
Being Plain Old Handy
Sure, you’re done with your education and you should start living by yourself, enjoying your privacy and independence, but there are a couple of things you forgot about. Another problem you’ll probably be faced with are minor home repairs because chances are that you never had something as simple as a screwdriver in your hands. So, I guess you’ll be confused with changing a light bulb.
Unfamiliarity of Monetary System
One more thing you should definitely know how to do is money management. Unless you have chosen to study something that’s strictly related to economy, not a single class you attended taught you about how to handle money, save and invest, and this usually turns out to be a serious problem in adulthood.
Lack of Cooking Skills
And the last, but certainly not the least important reason why a school doesn’t prepare you for the real world is related to your home. You need to be able to feed yourself, and almost everyone I know is incredibly confused when they enter the kitchen, let alone when they start using a knife or a pan. Cooking is fun and a great way to relieve stress while you’re doing something creative, so I don’t fully understand why this still isn’t one of the classes everyone must attend.
One last piece of advice – take classes outside of school. I personally believe that everyone should have a wide knowledge base and learn about everything in their lifetime, but you should take your future in your hands and build it exactly how you want to. There’s enough time for everything, of course – if you actually plan it properly.
Featured photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/photomonkey/ via flickr.com
