A conversation on TED.com: What's one thing you wish you had learned in school?

Jordan Reeves
New York, NY
United States

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What's one thing you wish you had learned in school?

Maybe it's not your traditional math, science, social studies, or arts and humanities class--maybe it's something different. If you could learn one lesson in school, what would it be?

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Topics: education learning school teaching

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Laura Schneider
- +1
Dec 2 2011: i wish i would have learned that it's not what you know, but how you use it that matters. teachers are often so distracted by cramming facts into children's heads to prepare them for standardized exams that they forget the aim of education should be preparation for LIFE, not just the next level of schooling.

but perhaps our concept of what education is has become so skewed that we have lost sight of this original intent. the definition of "education" (according to my mac's dictionary) is "the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, esp. at a school or university." whereas the term "an education" is defined as "an enlightening experience."

my hope is that schooling for the next generation will be less "education" and more of "an education."
Annette Chrysostomou
- 0
Dec 2 2011: Less theory, more application.
Ed Schulte 30+
- 0
Dec 2 2011: That

There was at the time / (nor does one that exists in current time ) / "school" or "presence" that could convey this clear Tolle Reminder

"The basis for true change is freedom from negativity. And that's what acceptance implies: no negativity about what is. And then you see what this moment requires: what is it that is required now so that life can express itself more fully? "
Steve C
- 0
Dec 2 2011: - "how to debate well" would be nice
- "there's more than just a few small ways to see things" (A, B, C, D, F, success, failure, right, wrong, e, f, g, r, 2.3, 9.u, oitjds, etc.)
- "How to really learn & know something"
- I wish I could've learned that I was important.
Christopher Henningsen
- 0
Dec 2 2011: It didn't exist yet at the time, but 3D printing. Here's a technology that might revolutionize how our industry works, decentralize and scale down production and give thousands of inventors with a good idea a fast way to make a prototype. Imagine a million schoolchildren every year, challenged to come up with the best idea for a small invention or 3D artwork. That would be so amazing.
m keshen
- 0
Dec 2 2011: i wish i had learned the language of the calculus.
Igor Oleynick
- 0
Dec 1 2011: how to create ideas. just from few days ago I started to think about this. some days I just wake up and my days pass by; and another I'm proactive, original, with good ideas. if at school our teachers had driven us to create simples ideas since the begining of our lives as a challenge, maybe we could be innovating our dayly life.
Buchilo Moyo
- +3
Dec 1 2011: What if your teacher had stated before a class that one thing you would be taught that day was going to be a lie. But you would not be warned which fact.
Maybe there would be group discussion to try and deduce which was the lie, maybe the final exam will be to demonstrate why the information is false.

I may not be explaining this well. But growing up (pre-internet era) there were these trusted controlled sources of information right: textbooks, experts, national newspapers, authorities, compendia...
You went to school, sat attentively in class and you absorbed and hopefully came out the wiser!
With the explosion of information and opinions and sources in this century, that trained instinct of passive obedience suddenly feels dangerous vulnerability.

If I wish anything, that critical thinking and (healthy) skepticism had been a larger part of my syllabi.
Cat Bartash
- 0
Dec 1 2011: If there is one thing that I can say that I wish I had learned, I would have to say that would be truth. Why do they teach children in school that Columbus discovered America when he discovered North America? If they had spent less time teaching me the lies and then the truth, they could have taught me other information.
- terachai chaorattana
  - 0
  Dec 2 2011: yes the thing you learn from school is not really true you have to find out more and more after that so what did you want from school is to know that you don't know a thing.
Wenting Zheng
- 0
Dec 1 2011: some soft skills like interpersonal skills .you know especially in China , Students learn more active and positive things in school .But it is pity ,once we leave school ,we find the world is not like teacher tought us .and people are so complex , so guilty .theremore the interperosnal skills can protect us agaist the harm from social activity .
- terachai chaorattana
  - 0
  Dec 2 2011: agree, so what wrong with our teacher, the answer is they stop learning and so are their students.
Si Xie
- 0
Dec 1 2011: Something that can actually apply to our reality and help those people who need it. Not just a semester of volunteering class and just do the service in regular time, but something that can solve the problem essentially.
Anastasia Teresh
- +2
Dec 1 2011: Skills useful to know in extreme emergency situations, like how to clean water for one's consumption post a natural disaster or how to give someone first aid CPR.
april cortez
- 0
Dec 1 2011: i wished they had taught more the significance of values over money making capacity.
April De Jesus
- +2
Dec 1 2011: How to manage finances.
Ben Maudlin
- 0
Dec 1 2011: Old artisan skills - I wish that there was still lessons on carpentry, wood working, metal working, metal casting, joinery and anything that is hands on, physical but creative. I love to work with my hands and it is very difficult to find the time to learn how to make beautiful dove tailing in furniture. Rather than buying a new wardrobe from IKEA it would be incredible (not to mention more sustainable) to be able to restore furniture of build things from scratch. Even things such as blacksmithing and tanning have all been lost due to the industrial process that have replaced them. Most people know the different between a nice piece of handmade anything and something that has been produced by a machine. Imagine if you could create this yourself. It is an entire form of tactile creativity that has been lost. This is why I wish I had learned such things.
- Elron Hubbard
  - 0
  Dec 1 2011: Ben, if you are in the states, you should go to some battle reenactments in the summers. Most, if not all of the trades you speak of are alive and well there, and many of those people have year-round businesses related to their tents at the battles.
  
  This year at the Missinnewa battle of 1812 reenactment I spent 40 mins in a fur and leather tannery tend looking at all of the hides they had. Beautiful stuff. They made belts of people upon request. There was also a old-style gunsmith restoring and building real period muskets. Very cool stuff, and everyone was "using their hands".
  - Ben Maudlin
    
    0
    Dec 1 2011: Thanks for the suggestion but I am a little south and east of the states in Australia. But if I even do get over there I will have to check it out.
Martin Béland
- +1
Dec 1 2011: I wish I had learned fuzzy logic. and fuzzy set theory. I think standard binary logic (true false) and standard set theory is close minded and is too far from the human way of thinking. All in life is fuzzy and the ability to recognize it and not be afraid of it opens to many beautiful discoveries. I read a book about this. It was developed by a guy in Russia and the theory now has many applications in robotics, industry, and houshold appliances and electronics.
Elron Hubbard
- 0
Dec 1 2011: I wish they taught us how to fight. I'm sure everyone is going to flame me for this, but the fact remains that I got my ass handed to me every single day in school for not being Italian like everyone else. It was always at least 10 on 1, and I know that there are techniques (i.e. krav maga) for handling these situations. But ultimately, no matter how bad I was beaten, I got suspended for defending myself. I perceive this as criminal (at worst) and downright cruel at best.

I am now in my late twenties, in college for the second time, and have failed remedial math for the third time, or will this semester. The tutors have no patience for me because I simply never learned math. Everything I learned in life I learned on my own, by doing. You generally don't "do" math in everyday life so yeah, I guess you could say that I didn't learn much. I've presented sales forecasts at business meetings, but that's about the extent of it. Besides, what in god's name is this X^2/(((((-(-((((1x)))))))))))) garbage all about??? I can't possibly foresee a use for that nonsensical garbage in real life unless I were an architect or something, which I will of course never be.

/Don't ever raise your kids in NYC.
//Why do they send cops to school on D.A.R.E. day to show kids suitcases full of drugs? That was the week that EVERYONE started using marijuana. Had they simply never talked about it, that stuff would have come at a much later date instead of 6th grade.
Dawn Hawkins
- 0
Dec 1 2011: I would have to agree with more emphasis on the arts. I would have loved to have had the option to learn more about creative writing. I don't necessarily mean poetry, but in fiction. Add o that learning the skills and knowledge to take that writing from the mind to the bookstores. The arts, in all forms were virtually ignored where I attended high school, leaving out a great deal of the dreaming that many others have echoed here. It is one thing to teach a particular skill, but students need to learn how to market those skills once they leave the classroom.
Mia Martin 30+
- 0
TED Translator

Nov 30 2011: I wish I was taugh to keep my creative side alive... to be able to keep my dreams alive.
Schools don't do that anymore...
Paul Carpenter
- 0
Nov 30 2011: I would have liked to have been taught the skills needed, and be given the motivation to find things out for myself - if you've got that then what else needs to be taught?
Tara O
- 0
Nov 30 2011: That history, the subject I so enjoyed, is just a collection of stories and never the real truth. There is no denying that we get told what they want us to know rather than what we should know. It's understandable I guess, because if we want to tell our history to the facts, then we have to have every single person tell it from their perspective and well that's gonna get messy and not sound in sync (people have different experiences).
History has become a collection of myths to me rather than actual facts - not sure whether that matters thoug. Would I act any different if it was all based on truth? I doubt it.
christopher linan
- +2
Nov 30 2011: if there was one thing i could have learned in school would be the art to dream. To learn how to be conciously aware in the sub-concious state. If we can harness our subconcious through realization, self determination, and connective thought i believe with sub-concious awareness we can provide a better outcome for the future of both ourselves and our childrens childrens. Perhaps we could learn more than wat the surface of waking life has to offer. If there is something we as human beings can share is we dream whether we remember or not. Some of the greatest inventions or train of thoughts come from being in a dream-like state; wat if that could happen simotaniously with the education of dream awareness? or concious awareness in the subconcious state of mind?
manuel ruiz-echarri
- +1
Nov 30 2011: I would like to have been learned on public speach and presentation even to perform.
christine vincent
- +1
Nov 30 2011: I really wish I had had the chance to do basic construction skills at school instead of home economics. I have always wanted to be able to fix things myself and life skills should include self sufficiency in all areas. Yes we can teach innovative learning in schools and ensure that children learn to be social networkers in this digital literacy world but hey how about being able to build your own home, an eco friendly home at that!
terachai chaorattana
- 0
Nov 30 2011: What ever is it, did we feel a need to said it out loud of what we had learnt from our life and i really mean it. Then there is a teacher and if we have some listener they are student, and the place you speak is school. That what happening very long long time ago. School give you what you want to know and understanding not competitive or winning over the other people but won over yourself.
sam zhang
- 0
Nov 30 2011: The dream,as a student,is to create an electronic product by myself or a team(hardly build in my school).But I failed to do it even though I always thought about it due to sorts of excuse.Most university students there are trying their best to pass the exams or play computer games(or do boring things) and I didn't find anybody to be the same type person like me.So dream is just a dream, I didn't achieve it until now to go to work and keep guilty why I didn't accomplish it.
Sharon McCann
- 0
Nov 30 2011: One thing I always hated as a student and that my students now hate vociferously is the dreaded group project. And I think that is because we handle the issue of grades badly in this country. Our education system is based upon competition instead of progress. The problem with this dread of group projects is that life is a group project. In marriage and family, in communities and places of employment, we depend upon each other and are impacted by each other. We preach independence without teaching us how to be productively interdependent. We teach competition and fail at teaching appropriate cooperation. Life is a group project.
Pierre-Etienne Dumont
- 0
Nov 30 2011: To learn ? No that's not it ... Maybe that competing, crushing your mates is OK, and parroting what the teacher said is OK. Collaborating is bad, and contributing is bad. Do not even try to be creative..
Erol Toksoy 10+
- +1
Nov 30 2011: Profession itself doesnt bring money it is your performance that brings money.