Life Skills 102
Schools sometimes offer “home economics” courses. And there’s the book Life Skills 101: A Practical Guide to Leaving Home and Living on Your Own, which concentrates mostly on financial matters.
I suggest a course, for high school seniors, called Life Skills 102. It would cover topics such as:
- How to deal with stress.
- How to make love to a woman.
- Learn to love your body (for women). It would teach about healthy body image and about healthy sexuality (e.g., how to reach orgasm).
- How to avoid a bad marriage.
- How to avoid and overcome depression.
- How to be a good friend.
- How to deal with coworkers and managers.
- How to stand up for yourself without offending and hurting others.
- How to deal with failure and difficulty.
- How to avoid being a jerk.
- How to overcome self-deception.
- How to deal with difficult people.
- Facing your demons and overcoming shyness and inertia.
Of course, we can all probably benefit from improved skills in many of these areas.
Many people are competent at work but have unsatisfying home and social lives, due to lack of social skills. And many problems at work are due to bad interpersonal relations. Schools should teach social skills. I suppose anti-bullying programs cover some of that material.