25 Things We Aren't Teaching Our Young
By Brent Antonson — ~9 min read
Somewhere between standardized tests and swipe culture, we quietly stopped teaching a pile of baseline skills—the kind that make you competent, calm under pressure, and halfway decent to share a planet with. Here’s a Gen‑X audit of the essentials every 25‑year‑old should have in their kit.
1) Mental Math & Estimation
Times tables, quick products, fractions, and order‑of‑magnitude checks. Yes, your phone has a calculator. No, it won’t save you from a bad decision you could’ve estimated in five seconds.
2) Handwriting That Matters (Write & Read Cursive)
Not nostalgia—utility. Signatures, quick notes, legible forms. Also: decoding other people’s cursive so grandma’s letters and real‑world scribbles aren’t encrypted forever. Bonus: pen control improves thinking.
3) Touch‑Typing (Ten Fingers, Zero Drama)
Speed + accuracy = more life. Hunt‑and‑peck is a tax on your brain. Learn home row; your future self will send you a thank‑you email—in 30 seconds, error‑free.
4) Speak & Tell Stories
Public speaking for stakes; storytelling for connection. Toastmasters, open mics, or just practice with a timer. Explain a thing. Make us care. Land the plane.
5) Character & Grit (Earned, Not Downloaded)
Avatars level up fast; humans earn it slow. Take on hard things, fail in public, try again. Real confidence is evidence‑based.
6) Self‑Care & Mental Health Literacy
Post‑pandemic reality check: recognize burnout, anxiety, and depression; know when to talk to a counselor; know how to be a friend who listens.
7) Everyday Civility
Hold the door, say please/thanks, make space. The tiny social frictions decide whether a day runs smooth or sideways. Be the human grease, not the grit.
8) Table Manners (The Five‑Dollar Skill)
Know the basics: pace yourself, pass before you pour, napkin lives on your lap. You’re not auditioning for Downton Abbey—just signaling you can share oxygen with in‑laws and clients.
9) Drive a Manual (The Art of Driving)
Clutch, rev‑match, hill starts. Even if you never own a stick, knowing how mechanics meet momentum makes you a safer driver.
10) Analog Phones & Payphones (Fallback Comms)
How to place a collect call, what a dial tone means, and why “no bars” shouldn’t end your options. Redundancy is a life skill.
11) Compass, Maps & Orienteering
GPS fails. North doesn’t. Read a topo, shoot a bearing, plan a route. City or forest, navigation is applied confidence.
12) 24‑Hour Time & Timetables
Trains leave at 17:15; planes land at 22:35. Read it without math. Your future self in Europe says thanks.
13) Firecraft (Matches, Kindling, Safety)
Light a match without drama; build a small, safe fire; put it dead‑out. Yes, it’s romantic. Also, it’s survival.
14) Wilderness Boundaries (Wildlife ≠ Disney)
Bears, coyotes, raccoons—not pets. Food storage, bear spray basics, distance rules. Respect keeps everyone alive.
15) Chess Basics (Openings, Tactics, Restraint)
Know how the pieces move, practice a few openings, and learn why trading a queen for ego is bad strategy—in chess and life.
16) Classic Games & Probability Intuition
Shuffle cleanly. Play Poker, Hearts, Cribbage, Backgammon. Cards teach patience; dice teach variance; all of it teaches people.
17) Family Genealogy & Heritage
Know your people—where they came from, what they carried, and what you’re carrying now. It’s not just nostalgia; it’s orientation.
18) Computer Fundamentals (Terminal & Filesystems)
What a file path is, how to boot safe mode, why backups matter, and how to not panic at a blinking cursor. DOS/macOS/Linux shell—the fear ends once you open it.
19) Basic Code & Analog Signals
HTML/CSS for a simple page, a loop and a condition in any language, and for fun: Morse, semaphore, and simple ciphers. Signals are older than apps.
20) Stargazing & Celestial Navigation
Find the Big Dipper, Polaris, and Cassiopeia; know the Moon’s phases. Hubble’s redshift = expanding universe. The sky is a map, not wallpaper.
21) Physics 101 Curiosity Pack
Wave‑particle duality, uncertainty, entanglement—just enough to be amazed and literate. You don’t need a PhD to ask better questions.
22) Scientific Method & Chronologies
How we know what we know: hypothesis → test → revise. Build real timelines (Auschwitz liberation, 9/11) to anchor memory against drift and denial.
23) Road Courtesy (Merge Like a Pro)
Signal, zipper‑merge, wave thanks. It costs one second and buys an hour of collective sanity.
24) Rhythm 101 (Hit a Beat)
Clap on two and four. Keep simple time on a drum or desk. Rhythm is coordination you can hear.
25) CPR & First Aid (Golden Hour Basics)
Recognize shock, stop a bleed, use an AED, treat a sprain, make a calm 911 call. One Saturday class, a lifetime of usefulness.
Bottom line
These aren’t “nice to have.” They’re the difference between being carried by systems and carrying your share. Teach them early; practice them often; pass them on.