Read this. Now.
The Ten Most Important Things They Didn't Teach you in School
Among the many things I love about Cracked.com, this has to be the single most alluring: if you took out all the dick jokes and smarmy captions (the dick jokes should stay, mind you; they are finely-crafted), this is a lucid, well-researched essay with ramifications beyond entertainment. It may be a top-ten list, but it also would be a fantastic curricullum for a life skills course. Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who teaches life skills courses.
I would pack up and move states to work at a school that would let me teach kids that success is about "1. Talent 2. Hard Work 3.Randomly Meeting the Right People and Not Pissing Them Off," or a chapter called "Why Hippies Have Never Discovered a Single Disease Cure." Pardon the cliche, but Cracked.com is often funny because it is true. In my experience, most American teens are so steeped in inauthenticity from all sides of the culture that they find a lack of bullshit absolutely intoxicating. But despite the obvious interest kids would show in this stuff, a teacher would get fired for phrasing it this way (i.e. effectively). It'll never be common sense until we teach it to everybody.
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