What is the outside world you might ask?
Well, step outside your house and you will see the sky, sun, trees, and dogs, that’s the outside. Okay, that’s not really what I’m talking about. I’m referring to what you will endure and encounter in your everyday life. From working at your first job, to dealing with people, and even the different things you will learn and experience in life.
What you learn in high school does not prepare you for what you will experience in the real world.
School is a system that equips you with a specific set of skills, but these are basic skills. Though obviously needed, it is not enough to prepare you for what planet earth has to offer. Necessary skills such as networking, housekeeping, cooking, self-defense, time management, stress management and basic home maintenance just to name a few, are crucial to survive.
Like most people in school I learnt how to add numbers, how to join sentences, and why the earth is round. Wait…I forget why the earth is round, but I think it has something to do with gravity. Anyway, you get my point.
School does not give you the life lessons needed to overcome challenges you WILL go through in life. Now granted not every place of education is the same, there are some secondary institutions that are more advanced than others.
But I think most life lessons and skills cannot be learnt in a school. What you learn in a place of education is not the same as to what you will experience in the outside world.
Gaining work experience for example, was something that taught me a lot. Work will teach you some of the important lessons you need to know about the real world.
It will teach that in some companies your job title is one thing, but your responsibilities are another. I learnt that the words that people speak, are different from their actions. Not everyone is your friend. I learnt that self-improvement and maturity is gained through the responsibilities and challenges you face, not by how old you become.
Education is definitely fundamental to one’s progress. Finishing high school and then moving on to tertiary level, and getting your degree is important. But there are those aspects of life that school will never prepare you for.
One of them which I think is the most important, is networking. And no, I’m not taking about working with the nets we use to catch fish.
I’m referring to communicating with people who are in the same industry that you want to be a part of.
Socialising with your peers at school, is not the same as building connections and relationships with people in the outside world.
I myself struggle to network, especially when I need to communicate verbally. But with practice, there can be improvement. It is this practice and life skill among others, that is not thought in schools.
About the author: A.N. Singh is from Port Shepstone on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. He is currently studying creative writing through Unisa, as writing is his purpose and passion. At the moment he is focusing on on contemporary fiction. His dream is to become a published author one day.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
