Everyday in May: Things I Never Learned in School

Today's prompt: "Things you've learned that school won't teach you." I'm going to make this a simple list of things.

1. How to eat the right food for my own body. Sure, you learn the food groups, but those can change with research. And each body is different, has different quirks, and needs different proportions of food to be healthy. It would be impossible to learn something like that in school, because it is a group setting.
2. How to write the types of entertainment articles I write for Yahoo. The "proper" type of writing you learn in school has nothing to do with specific writing requirements of various sites on the Internet. You also can't learn how to include the right kind of flair, and know how to break the rules in ways that make your writing more interesting for the general public.
3. Problem solving and critical thinking. School can teach you a few problem solving skills, but it's possible to graduate at the top of your class with almost no problem solving ability. Some people are able to get by with a lot of memorization. But if they really want to do themselves a favor, they should do puzzles. I do puzzles every single day to exercise the problem solving centers of my brain. I also like to read about current events and just take the time to think about them and figure out how I feel about them with no input from others. You just don't get that in school.
4. How to keep myself busy and entertain myself when nobody else is around. This is another thing you can't learn when you're surrounded by other people. Sometimes I like to be alone with my thoughts. It's good to have alone time without feeling a need to find somebody to talk to.
5. Experience. If you want to become an expert at something, you have to just get in and do it. Practice makes perfect. That's where you learn all the nuances, special considerations and ways to work faster and smarter rather than harder to get the same job done in less time with improved quality.
6. Lot's of other things I can't think of right now. :)