Learning to learn... Stay with me.

I didn't do too well in high school. It wasn't that I was a bad student or had poor intelligence, it was that I never really understood how to learn. When I went to University they held seminars on how to learn for new students. I reckon they were some of the most important seminars I attended.

If I recieved those lessons at the start of high school I would have been far better off. I was taught how to process information, how to communicate my ideas and thoughts effectively and how to think critically; it acted as a backbone for everything else I learned while I was there.

As for traditional lessons that should have more focus, I would say maths. People say you don't need it, but they're just plain wrong.

High school (and even middle school) is turning more and more into a joke. I have a teacher friend and she was telling me about some of the things the high schools were doing in her district.

In the middle schools they've apparently implemented a rule where the kids can retake a test as often as they want and each test has to be different. This means that kids no longer have a large incentive to study, grades are near meaningless if you can keep taking something until you get an A, and they are adding more work onto already oveworked teachers. It's an absolute joke. At least they started implementing something where if you retake the max you can get is a 90 but it's still beyond stupid.

Something else they implemented last year was a no homework, or at least no homework for grades rule. Teachers would try to assign homework to kids and the kids would rip it up right in front of them because they couldn't be graded on it. The (bad) idea is that homework is just busy work and they shouldn't be graded on that. This year they got a little wiser and made it so homework was worth 10% of the final grade but it's still a beyond stupid system.

They've also added a rule where teachers can't penalize students for not turning in their assignments (homework or major project). A kid could wait until the end of the year to turn in every single assignment throughout the whole course and still get full credit for everything. Of course, again, that screws the teacher because it puts even more work on them and, again, and just an overly stupid rule. They want kids to be judged on their work on not on if they can turn it in on time.

I know this is all off topic, but kids are getting less and less prepared for the college and the real world because of dumb-ass rules like that.

Wow, that's just plain idiotic for them to implement any of those things. Those kids will get a rude awakening once college rolls around, if they even go.

Common sense

Geography

Some good replies. Respect for elders and others is pretty much missing in the western world. I would also like to say basic finance should be taught. I mean does not have to be deep investment scenarios but information about how credit works, credit cards, interest, mortgage and other loans.

This one person (a friend of a friend) said they buy most of their stuff using a credit card, which is fine. Than they said it is good because they only have to pay like $10 or so dollars a month (the minimum possible payment). I just didn't have any words to explain to them how freaking stupid of a practice that is when one has to pay 18% interest on credit cards.

Yeah, some of the classes wouldn't span more than one year (or semester). A finance class wouldn't need to cover anything deep like investments or the like, but simple things like you said. Something like a CPR class wouldn't really need more than one/two sessions, so a general overall health class would be better (better health classes than available), and would include nutrition, CPR, Heimlich and various other things. Schools should be teaching the basics they do now, plus actual practical things.

Who cares about college?  All that school system is likely worried about is keeping their federal school funding.

Also, as far as financial classes go. I had one in high school, with a bunch of my friends.

It didn't change anything really. Those who sucked with their money still sucked with their money. Those who were smart with it were still smart with it.

I feel like that kind of thing really gets ingrained on a kid from an earlier age, largely by watching how their parents spend.

I wouldn't mind seeing a basic economics class or two taught so people could actually understand how economics work though.  Based on recent events it seems like a lot of average people are missing  fundamental understanding on the matter.

Additionally a class on how culture and many other things effect us and how we think without us even realizing it would be useful as well.  Malcolm Gladwell's blink has a good chapter on that.

Although it may not affect them in the long run, it might help instill some fundamentals with finances. Teaching them about credit cards, their interest rates and stuff like setting aside money for a rainy day might help somewhat, even if they got ideals ingrained into them by their parents' habits.