Let’s face it, the world is changing from analog to digital, from hypothetical to practical. Rather than play catch up after leaving school, here are the four things that basic education should include.

1. How the Internet works

Going online is one thing, but making a virtual home is another and the latter is becoming more and more crucial. From the moment one decides to create a website, they are bombarded with a whole dictionary of vocabulary. There are words that one has never even come across, much less understand or even worse: words that one knows but fail to comprehend, usually technical and accepted as part and parcel of the virtual world we have built around us, but with no true comprehension as to what it stands for. The first thing a new web-owner learns is the difference between a domain name and a server and how both is needed to run a fully functioning website that can receive visitors. Then comes the harder bit, search engine optimization, various plugins and designs. While it is true that one may employ the services of SEO companies if need be, schools should be able to produce people who are capable of working for them.

2. How to Adult

A commonly shared theme amongst millennials in particular. Many of them feeling as though they missed out on a course preparing them for the ordeal of humdrum adult life. Bills, taxes and various employment or health benefits and laws, the rules that govern a society are either passed down by their parents or learnt through trial and error. However, one might assume that it would be in that government’s best interest if their next generation is already well versed in being a productive and effective citizen upon leaving school.

3. Empathic Social Skills

Kindness and compassion are both highly desired traits and yet not actively encouraged or taught in school, focusing solely on knowledge and by-the-book-intelligence. While IQ and EQ might stand for very different things, they do have logic in common. The only logic teachers are interested in teaching are mathematics and therefore, creating students with a distinct lack of empathy and social skills. This also leads to difficulties in becoming a well-adjusted adult, especially since younger generations are becoming increasingly self-absorbed and are incapable of seeing past anything but their own desires.

4. Life Skills

Light-bulb changing seem to revolve around many jokes, yet the joke’s on us – how many really know how to do it, fresh out of high school? How to fix a leaky faucet? How about unclogging a drain? There are even those who do not know how to work a washing machine or that the toilet floor requires a good scrub in order to remove grit and mould. Things that may seem of little to no importance, as they are skills that one pick up with age, but it would be nice to start life with the basic skill set needed to keep a home running in tip-top condition.