By Marilena Kagkaraki,
School is a lot of the times referred to as a microcosm of society. They sometimes compare it and tell you school is an example of what you will see in the real world. While school teaches us how to use a lot of the tools that we will need in the future and provides us with invaluable knowledge to face adulthood, there are still things I wish I had learnt which schools do not include in the curriculum. Below some examples.
LIFE
Life is difficult, but most of the time you are not prepared for it. At school, the embedded mentality teaches us that the more we study and prepare, the less the probability to “fail the test.” In reality, it works the other way around. Life first throws you the challenges and you actually, no matter what, have to work your way out of it and figure out solutions. In other words, “life lessons”, as they are called, come after you have found your way through difficulties and challenges.
MISTAKES
At school, mistakes are important. We feel bad when we do not do well in a test, making a mistake in class and so on. However, in life mistakes most of the time do not matter. They matter only if they can be undone by putting effort to figure out the best solution. Also, mistakes can be made way more than one time and even the same ones multiple times, until you figure out not to make them again and learn from them.
KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge is presented as specific and limited and it remains restricted to textbooks. It is also presented as part of our future career. In other words, people who are good at maths are expected to have mostly that piece of knowledge. Nonetheless, knowledge is so broad and people can retain a big amount of information from different fields and of course no matter our age, there is always the possibility of learning different things and skills.
RELATIONSHIPS
This is a field which at school you do not learn much about. The only lessons we learn is only because of our interactions with friends. However, society in reality requires different kinds of interactions and relationships be it friendships, academia, work, family or romantic or any other kind of relationship. A lot of people struggle with their emotions and how to handle relationships. Emotional stability and maturity is something to talk about more and even just having that conversation from a young age between peers and someone who is knowledgeable would be really beneficial.
SELF-REFLECTION
One of the biggest things I wish I had learned and discussed more is how important is to go through self-reflection and try to understand yourself and others deeply. To actually invest in yourself and your inner emotions and thoughts and try to understand more about who you are as a person, is really important to help you navigate life in a way that will make you more fulfilled.
LIFE PATH
When you are young, the choices that society and school present to you are limited and I guess they direct you towards a safe and known path in life. A certain path about how you should live your age, the things you should do, which career you should follow, relationships and more. One thing is certain, life is to be filled with what makes us happy. It does not have to be what is expected of us and what school taught us, but rather to make our choices and be free to live life in our own terms.
In the end, I guess, life is more complicated than presented in school and when we are young. But, this is the magic with it, trying to figure out all those aspects that make life beautiful.
