Ask The Readers: If There Was A Personal Development Course In Schools What Topics Would It Cover?

September 17th 2008   Ask The Readers   8 comments

Some months back I asked my readers whether they thought personal development could and should be taught at schools. The response was largely positive, with most of you agreeing that even though children at a school age wouldn’t necessarily get it, it would still introduce some valuable topics and ideas for them to think about. As Mike King commented, school generally only provides basic knowledge and understanding (to function in a work environment), it doesn’t necessarily help with preparing them for life and its other challenges.

It’s with this in mind that I now propose my next question to you all. If there was a personal development curriculum in schools what topics would it cover? Personal development covers a lot of ideas and because it’s such big business there are a lot of crackpot ideas out there. Which ones are the truly useful principles? Which ones would school children most likely benefit and appreciate? One example would be how to get organized and de-cluttered. The lessons could cover why it’s so important and how you can be smart with your possesions and efficient with your space. Productivity, which in itself covers a lot of ideas, would also be an obvious topic. Would you base it around GTD principles or something else entirely? As an extra question, what text books would you use? I look forward to your answers!

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Reader discussion

Love the idea! If I were to teach it, I’d include:

1. How money works.
2. How anyone can get rich and stay rich and why poor people usually stay poor.
3. How to make the right friends.
4. How to achieve any goal.
5. How to figure out what you want out of life.

These are basically the topics I wish I had been taught when I was growing up by anyone - parents, teachers or friends - but there is precious little useful information accessible to our youth out there even today. That is why I started my blog.

I asked the same question last month! My query was inspired by a post on home economics. More than anything else, I think I would have benefited from learning good business and financial practices. I was a financial wreck for so long, and am just now cleaning up the mess my irresponsibility made.

Finances seems to be a strong suggestion here. Makes sense. I haven’t a clue on all the different types of investments and savings are out there. Teaching people to be smart with money and not follow this whole retail therapy attitude would be very effective.

1. Finances (get them to save).
2. Time management (have an agenda).
3. Setting goals (know where you’re going).
4. Organization (have and empty inboxes)

I think there should be a variety of life-courses. One being finances and another being personal development which would include awareness of others (you’re not the only one in the world contrary to what you think), awareness of self (the ability to self-examine effectively) and learning to look past the surface and discern the message behind the message (getting outside of Plato’s Cave).

The biggest thing you can teach, which will profoundly change everything, is how to overcome insecurity. Self-confidence allows you to develop any other aspect of life, whether it be finances or organizational skills, with ease and fun.

1. Self-evaluation (the lost art of knowing yourself).
2. Budgeting (quite different to wise spending).
3. Relating (how to get along with everybody).
4. How to be happy (without external stimuli).
5. How to relax (the art of stillness).

My hands down vote would be a course based on the book Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman. This book basically insures a person against a lot of psychological pitfalls, and helps to find ones true strengths to maximize happiness.

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