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Dec. 27, 2024

933: What They SHOULD Have Taught You in School (But Didn't)

Our education system prioritizes theoretical knowledge over essential life skills, creating generations of graduates who can solve complex equations but struggle with basic adult responsibilities.

Did your education actually prepare you for real life? While you can recite the Pythagorean theorem and name every British monarch, can you file your taxes or cook a healthy meal? This eye-opening episode exposes the massive disconnect between what we learn in school and what we actually need to know as adults.

 

 

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In this hard-hitting analysis, we dive deep into the critical life skills mysteriously absent from our education system. From financial literacy and home maintenance to emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship, we uncover the essential knowledge that's being systematically left out of traditional curricula.

 

Why do we spend years learning theoretical concepts while practical skills like budgeting, relationship management, and basic legal knowledge remain untaught? This episode challenges the status quo and exposes how our education system might be working exactly as designed – but not necessarily in our best interest.

 

Discover the real-world consequences of this educational gap, from widespread financial illiteracy to poor mental health management. We explore how these individual challenges snowball into larger societal problems, affecting millions of lives across generations.

 

Ready to be part of the solution? Learn three actionable steps you can take today to help transform education in your community. Whether you're a parent, teacher, or concerned citizen, this episode provides the blueprint for creating meaningful change in how we prepare future generations for real-world success.

 

 

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Transcript

Brian Nichols  0:00  
All right, folks, I want you to think back to your school days, all those hours spent in classrooms, all those fun tests, all the homework. Now ask yourself, how much of what you learned do you actually use in your daily life? Yeah, today we're going to explore something that's been bothering me for a while. I'm sure, than bothering you too, we're going to talk about the massive disconnect between what we learn in public schools and what we actually need to know as adults. And more importantly, we're going to discuss why this disconnect exists and what it means for our society. So if you dig into where we are today, everyone seems to have something they struggle with, uh, their taxes. Maybe they're drowning in credit card debt, or maybe they're being taken advantage of because they don't understand their insurance policies. I mean, I could keep going through all of these and coming back to the same exact question, why didn't we learn any of this in school? And think about it, we've spent 1213, years in public education, and that's not counting pre K or college. Yeah, that's over a decade of our lives supposedly being prepared for adulthood, and yet somehow we come out knowing the Pythagorean Theorem, but not knowing how to build a budget. I mean, yeah, we can recite Shakespeare, but we can't negotiate a salary. We all. We know all about the mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell, right, but we don't know the first thing about maintaining our own mental health. Yeah, something doesn't add up. So today, we're going to break this down piece by piece, and we're going to look at all the crucial life skills that should be taught in schools but aren't. And more importantly, we're going to discuss why these skills are systematically left out of our current government education system. So first up financial literacy, and I'm not talking about those one off assemblies where some bank rep comes in, tells you you need to save money. What I'm talking about is real, practical financial education, like, how do you build credit? How compounding interest works, both when it's working for you and when it's working against you. Basic investing concepts, you know what school taught me about the stock market, nothing, absolutely nothing. But hey, I can tell you all about the war of 1812 and speaking of practical skills, let's talk about cooking and nutrition. Because I mean, sure, yeah, we all remember that fake food pyramid poster in our health class. But did anyone actually teach you how to meal plan or how to grocery shop on a budget, or how to cook basic, healthy meals, no but again, thank God. We can tell you that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, because that really comes in handy when we're staring at an empty fridge at 8pm on a Wednesday night here. Here's another one that blows my mind, basic home maintenance. I mean, do you know how much money people waste every year calling in professionals to fix things that they could easily fix themselves? But instead of teaching basic home repair or how to use common tools, we spend weeks learning about different types of clouds. And don't get me wrong, clouds are really cool and all, but I'm pretty sure that knowing how to unclog a drain or reset a circuit breaker would be more immediately useful. And let's talk about something that's actually really important and we definitely need to talk about right now, family planning relationships like I'm not just talking about all those awkward sex ed classes that we had to sit through. What I'm talking about is real practical information on how to build healthy relationships, understanding, communication styles, conflict resolution, you know, the stuff that actually matters in real life, but no, we spend more time learning how to square dance and PE and what about time management? I mean, we spend years in school, but nobody teaches us how to actually manage our time effectively. Instead, we learn how to cram for tests and pull all nighters, literally the worst habits that we could develop, and then we wonder why everyone's burned out by the time they're 31 years old. Now let me tell you another thing that drives me really crazy, and that is our complete failure to teach anything about taxes or insurance for that matter. I mean, these things are things that literally everyone has to deal with at some point, but somehow we graduate high school without knowing the first thing about tax brackets, deductions or how insurance actually works. Instead, we're out here thinking our health insurance deductible is some kind of conspiracy against us, because nobody ever explained how risk pooling works, and then some whack job goes and offs a health insurance CEO. And don't even get me started on emotional intelligence and mental health, because right now, we're living in probably the most stressful time in human history. But. Even forbid we teach kids how to actually deal with stress or manage their emotions. No, no. Instead, let's make them memorize the names of all the British monarchs, because that'll definitely come in handy during their next anxiety attack. And by the way, here's another thing that's missing, and this is a huge one, entrepreneurship. I mean, we spend all this time preparing kids to be good little robots, good little employees. But what about teaching them how to create something of their own? How about teaching basic business concepts, marketing, innovation? These are real skills that could literally change someone's life. But no, we're just going to go ahead and read more Shakespeare saunas, because that's more important, right? And by the way, speaking of important skills, what about growing food? I mean, if we're talking about essential life skills, being able to grow your own food seems pretty high up there. But instead of teaching basic gardening or food production, we got kids learning what we're learning the history of the cotton gin. I mean, don't get me wrong, history is super important, but maybe we could balance it out with some practical skills that I don't know actually might help people feed themselves. Did you guys see that video of the girl on, I think was on Tiktok, who didn't understand that she could eat the lemons growing on the lemon tree in her backyard, and instead was going to the store and buying bags of lemons. Yeah. Oh, and by the way, you know, it's really wild. Most schools don't even teach basic first aid anymore. I mean, think about that for a second. We're sending kids out into the world who can recite the the quadratic formula, but they don't know what to do if someone's choking or if someone's having an allergic reaction, make it make sense. And by the way, in the age of social media and constant information, why are we teaching kids about media literacy, like how to spot fake news, how to verify sources, how to think critically about what we're reading? You've seen like pretty essential skills in today's world. But no, apparently it's more important to know how to calculate the area of a rhombus. Look. I could go on all day about this, and we haven't even touched on things like basic legal knowledge, retirement planning, voting, civic engagement, actual survival skills. But here's the bottom line, our education system isn't broken. It's doing exactly what it was designed to do. And the question in 2024 going into 2025 is, is this what we actually need? Think about it, guys, if we just took half the time we spend on theoretical knowledge and instead focus on practical life skills like, what if we actually prepared kids for the real world, instead of just preparing them for more school? And no, I can already hear the objections. I'm not saying we should just completely abandon traditional academics, but maybe, just maybe, we could find a better balance, because right now, we're churning out graduates who can solve complex equations but can't solve their own problems. And that's not just a failure of education. That's a failure of common sense. So here's what it all comes down to. The problem isn't just that our schools aren't teaching these essential life skills, it's that they're actively choosing not to and that choice, just like all other choices, has consequences, real, measurable consequences, that affect millions of lives. Think about the ripple effects. Financial illiteracy leads to debt. Poor nutrition leads to health problems. Lack of emotional intelligence leads to broken relationships. Guys, these aren't just individual problems. These are societal problems, and they're very real problems that could be significantly reduced if we just taught people the basic skills from the beginning. But here's the good news,

we can change this, because it starts first with awareness, with conversations like the one I'm having right now with the microphone to you, and it continues with action, demanding better from our educational institutions, supporting alternative education models and taking responsibility for teaching skills to the next generation. So if this episode is resonating with you, I have three action items for you today. First, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and that could be a parent, that could be a teacher or anyone who cares about education. Second, start thinking about what skills you wish you learned in school, and make a commitment to learn them now, because it's never too late to gain practical knowledge. And finally, number three, get involved in your local education system. Attend that school board meeting, voice your concerns, push for practical life skills to be included in the curriculum. If you don't want to read, Jimmy learns how to be a girl with your kids at night, be the parent and voice your concerns. Because remember, education isn't just about filling our heads with facts, figures and nonsense, but rather preparing us for real life, and it's time we start treating education that way. All right, folks, that's we're gonna go ahead and put a pin in today's conversation. If you got some value again, go ahead and give today's episode a share. Also tag yours truly at B Nichols liberty. You can find me on X on Facebook, and you can go ahead and subscribe to us over on YouTube, Rumble or whatever it is. You consume your favorite video content. Also, The Brian Nichols Show is a podcast, so head to your favorite podcast, catcher, Spotify, Apple podcast, YouTube, music, wherever that may be. Hit that subscribe button, and, of course, hit that little notification bell. See them as a single time. We have a brand new episode airing. With that being said, No Week in Review. This week, rems and I decided to take a little bit of a break here and spend some time with friends and family. So hopefully, I'll get a few more episodes here out over the next few days. If not, I'll see you next year. But with that being said, Brian Nichols, signing off here on The Brian Nichols Show. Talk to you next time. Thanks for

Speaker 1  11:14  
listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at Brian Nichols show.com.

Brian Nichols  11:22  
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai