5 Ways School FAILS Young Men

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You’ve probably realized by now that the education you got in school massively underprepared you for life in the real world.

You might be thinking: ‘If school is all about getting ready for adulthood, why did it leave out such important things such as money, relationships, and wellness?’

Well, that’s because school isn’t designed to prepare you for a fulfilling, healthy life. It’s designed to make you a good employee. 

Luckily, we now have access to more free education than at any other point in history.

So in this article, I’m going to tell you 5 ways school failed you, and what you can do to fill in the gaps on your own. 

Personal Finances

The whole idea of school is to educate you so you can get a job and make some money.

But for some reason, school does not educate you on what to do with that money from your job, so you can build wealth and live prosperously. 

It’s not surprising that 25% of Americans have a negative or zero net worth.

Meanwhile, the average credit card balance is over $6,000, and 71% of Americans identify money as a significant cause of stress in their lives.

I’m not bringing up these statistics to lay the blame on individual Americans - not at all.

We have an education system that is set up to teach you how to get a job and be a good employee, but teaches you nothing about what to do with that money once you get it. 

Fortunately, it has never been easier to get educated on personal finances either for free or for a very low cost.

There are numerous big-players in the personal finance world - Dave Ramsey, Robert Kiyosaki, and more recently, Graham Stephan - and they all have a slightly different approach. 

But they all have some things in common, which is to stay out of consumer debt, invest a percentage of your income, and increase your income.

Ironically, none of these three basic lessons are taught in school. 

Sex and Relationships

Those of you who had some kind of sex education in classes in school, I’m sure you can agree with me - what a joke!

The way I learned what sex is was literally with my English teacher demonstrating with her hands to the class that the penis goes through the vagina and that’s how babies are made. 

Meanwhile, any advice on how to have a healthy relationship with good communication skills was completely absent.

One aspect of sex and relationships that school rather dangerously fails to teach us is STDs. 

“The way I learned what sex is was literally with my English teacher demonstrating with her hands to the class that the penis goes through the vagina and that’s how babies are made. ”

And we are also failed by mainstream medical providers on this topic, because the average medical school curriculum only allocates a meager 4-8 hours to sexual health training.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, therefore, that the CDC estimates one in five Americans has an STD on any given day.

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Nutrition and Fitness

Continuing with health and wellness, another way in which school totally fails young men and women is with its education about nutrition and fitness. 

According to the CDC, 74% of adults are overweight, and 42% are obese.

Unlike personal finance, the school system does attempt to teach young people how to take care of their bodies through diet and exercise. 

But whatever young people are being told - it’s not working. 

I went to school in the UK, where things may be a little different to the US, but I was brought up to believe that animal products were bad, grains and starches were good, and that the best form of exercise is cardio. 

Honestly, given the lifestyle I had as a teenager, it’s a miracle I grew to be six foot two and to be in relatively good shape. 

I never learned about protein, healthy fats, or building muscle - these are all things I had to figure out on my own in my 20s.

And as men, the school system fails to teach us about the importance of hormone levels and how our lifestyle choices can negatively or positively impact our testosterone.  

Recently, I have become more and more interested in this topic, and I’ve begun taking my personal health a lot more seriously.

So let me know if you would enjoy seeing an article in the future on how to follow a good diet and prepare healthy food as a young man. 

Entrepreneurship

I mentioned earlier how school fails to teach us how to handle our personal finances. 

But school also does a pretty terrible job at teaching us how to make money - especially, how to make money ourselves, as entrepreneurs.

I have a lot of love and respect for our teachers, but if you think about their disposition and their job, it’s about the least entrepreneurial career path you can take.

So it’s no surprise they do not encourage and educate young men about starting their own businesses. 

But this problem isn’t just limited to the school system, it also exists within our universities and colleges. 

For example, I went to journalism school from 2016 to 2019 - when online blogging and social media was already a very established way for a journalist or content creator to make money.

But I learned nothing about how to do that or the benefits of using my skills in an entrepreneurial way.

Instead we were shepherded into very traditional, and very badly paid, journalism jobs.

It seems to me that the university system is just another part of the ‘compliant employee’ funnel as the school system. 

But as with personal finances, there is now a wealth of information out there specifically for young entrepreneurs. 

You can sit down and listen to endless conversation with top business people in any industry.

And it has never been easier to start your own business, because the internet has lowered the start-up costs and therefore the risks of being an entrepreneur.

Personal presentation

I did not learn to dress lie this from my teachers

Teachers told us that our appearance doesn’t matter, and that we shouldn’t judge others on how they look. 

Well our teachers LIED to us and denied a fundamental truth about human behavior. 

School does not teach a young man how to groom himself, how to dress well, or create a memorable personal brand.

At least, if you have a school uniform, you get used to the regime of dressing properly - tying a tie, wearing a jacket, etcetera.

But these days, schools are allowing kids to turn up wearing sweatpants to class.

I believe that taking pride in your appearance is just as important for your success in life as your ability to communicate and think strategically. 

In decades gone by, it was expected of society that men must dress well. 

If your dad didn’t show you how, then your teacher, or your favorite movie star would.

But now, we’ve allowed our standards to slip - and I think it’s no surprise that young men are feeling low levels of self-esteem, and honestly, not feeling like real men.

Luckily, there are now more free resources out there than ever before helping young men dress well. 

Guys like Antonio Centeno over at Real Men Real Style and Raphael Schneider at the Gentleman’s Gazette have become like father figures to guys around the world. 

And if you want to meet more men who share your passion for dressing well and being a gentleman, I highly encourage you to join the Gent Z community, which I recently launched. 

I will be there to personally welcome you to the community once you become a member.