Reality Check: Stocking the Toolkit

If you wanted to equip a young person with the tools they need to have a satisfying life, what would you choose?
My long-standing answer contains only three items: we need to be able to read, to write, and to do basic math. Why those?
If we can read well, then we have a great opportunity to learn. And we aren’t limited to learning what the people around us want us to learn, either. We have the freedom to seek a wide variety of knowledge, from the ancient to the modern.
There is so much knowledge readily available.
One could argue that reading isn’t as essential as it used to be, as so much information is now available in pictures and videos. It’s a valid point. Still, the ability to read and understand gives one the flexibility to learn from a wide variety of sources.
How about the ability to write? Why is that valuable? Among the benefits is that when we can write effectively, we can record what we’ve learned. We can save it for later!
Once we’ve figured out how to solve a problem, we can write it down. (And, of course, store it where we can find it again.) The next time a similar challenge pops up, we don’t have to start from scratch.
Writing is also a vehicle through which we can share what we’ve learned. It’s a way to contribute our part to the overall body of knowledge. Through writing, we can efficiently ask others for help. If you’ve ever taken a look at any of the many hobbyist or special interest websites, you’ll find people eagerly sharing what they know. It’s all for the joy of advancing knowledge, innovating and progressing in a particular field.
Finally, there’s basic math. Skill with numbers is useful. While there may be adults who look at math as only a subject that you find in school, a person who is comfortable with numbers has advantages. For one thing, you can figure out for yourself whether your paycheque is correct. You can make useful predictions, such as: “How long will it take me to get to XX, and do I have enough money to get there?” If you’ve ever built anything that depended on measurements, you know that math matters. Finally, you might even be able to determine whether there really are enough hours in a day.
Those were the three skills that I’ve believed are essential for a “survival toolkit.”
By now you may be thinking that there’s something missing here. Yes indeed! How about this addition: the ability to get along with others?
Can we learn the skill of “getting along”? Yes. But what if you’re not a people person? That’s ok. The fundamentals are pretty simple. Look people in the eye. Smile. Say please and thank you. Keep your commitments. Follow through on promises.
These simple expressions of etiquette can take anyone a long way forward, in work or in personal relationships. The skills are worth cultivating. Even if they don’t come naturally, try it. See what happens. You may find that the return that you get from making even the most basic of efforts to be polite and to get along will surprise you.
What skills do you consider to be important to lead a satisfying life? How do you develop them? How would you teach them?