What are these life skills I am talking about? Here's a non-exhaustive list!
- First Aid (Up to 59% of 'pre-hospital' deaths from injury could potentially be prevented if more people stepped in with some simple first aid, according to new research commissioned by the British Red Cross and conducted by the University of Manchester. This is for UK alone, but I'm sure the same sentiments apply for other nations).
- Basic shelter building and construction. I think using power tools and basic safety measures should apply here.
- Firearms safety. This one's a bit controversial and I am not here to talk about gun control, but regardless of Nerf, BB, paintball, blanks, or live rounds... I think it's safe to say that everyone should at least know about the basic discipline! I have heard horror stories about people poking each other's eyes out because of poor BB or paintball impulses.
- Mechanical skills, mainly towards working on your motorbikes or your cars, e.g. changing a flat tire.
- Basic sewing to patch up those bits rather than throwing the entire cloth away.
- Basic swimming skills. You don't necessarily need to be an Olympian swimmer, but if you live near the waters, you probably must at least know how to float.
- Basics of Taxes and Finances. Knowing different tax forms, filling them up, etc, etc.
- EDIT: Separate now. Basic understanding of law and court proceedings. You don't need to be a bona-fide part-time lawyer, but know your laws well and you will (probably) be fine if you somehow got into trouble.
- Social skills? Again, might be controversial, but things such as spatial awareness (realising that you are blocking the doorway or in the middle of a sidewalk), or self-awareness / self-actualization.
- Basic house maintenance - includes plumbing and electrical skills, e.g. fixing a toilet, fixing that pesky wiring...
- Danger awareness. This is a very broad term, but I will list down stuff like cybersecurity (please DO NOT doxx yourself, go to weird websites, etc etc), or checking if that puddle of water is deep or shallow. Kinda overlaps with social skills in a way.
EDIT:
- Basic cooking skills! I missed this one out, sorry! I think this is much more important than ever, given the situation! You don't need to be a gourmet chef, but you at least need to know how to cook some stuff properly to not starve.
- Critical inference, not just blindly believing in something. It's not to conspire against everything, but I think it's good if people started wondering "Wait, is this real?" and make a simple search before that Facebook post asks you to spread the message.
So what say you, NSG? Do you have a life skill that I have listed, or are you learning and picking up one? Or do you have another skill that you want to talk about? ^^ Is one life skill more important than the other for you?
And of course, should this be taught in schools as a compulsory subject (you can choose which one you want), and maybe just have practical tests to ensure that students learn?
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Personally for me, I know a bit of First Aid (if worse comes to worst, I can give someone CPR or use an AED), because if your brain lacks oxygen while you are unconscious... that's obviously not a good sign. Even a few minutes without oxygen WILL give you brain damage if you are KO'ed. I can't really dislodge someone who is choking, though. Never know how, but might be learning that.
I am also supportive of firearms discipline, and the last overlapping danger awareness. For the latter, even the most cynical of us can sometimes fall into traps that are either very convincing, or just the thought that it's not that harmful (a shallow puddle can indeed kill if you fell the wrong way).
I would make a poll, but there are too many entries and like I said, non-exhaustive. The definition of "Life Skills" can vary from one person to another.