Useful Skills From My Childhood

Everyone knows that the best time to learn anything is from childhood and that's because as kids, our brains were wired to quickly pick up and retain information much faster than that of adults. But the problem is that we had no filter to what we were learning, our young brains had a voracious appetite for learning and we always try to satisfy our curiosities anytime the opportunity presents itself. Through this process, we were able to figure out things that we loved doing and that have shaped us into the adults we are today.

I was a very curious child and that actually got me into a lot of trouble but at the same time it gave me new experiences and skills. One of the things I loved doing as a child was dismantling electronic devices and attempting to recouple them. A lot of times I ended up destroying those devices which earned me some punishments from my parents. But the good thing about those experiences is that I learned how to fix electrical appliances on my own. Now that I'm an adult, my parents don't bother to call an electrician whenever there's a simple electrical problem at home.

When I was younger, my dad always called an electrician to fix basic problems around the house but when I got older, I surprised him one day by fixing a damaged wall socket. From that day, he always sends me to fix simple electrical problems and we only call an electrician when the problem is more technical. It's funny how I played a lot with these things when I was younger, got zapped by electric current a couple of times and still got punished by my parents but now, they are enjoying the benefits of all those years of sacrifices.

a wall socket I fixed recently

But what actually improved my electrical skills was the physics I did back in high school. When we learned about electrical currents back then, I paid a lot of attention during class and was heavily invested in that topic. That helped to fill in a lot of gaps I had in my knowledge and made me fully understand how electricity works in a circuit board. Of course, what we learned was basic stuff and not anything advanced like what is taught to engineering students in the university but combining those basic things with the little I already knew was enough to upgrade my ability to fix electrical appliances.

Another thing I learned back then as a child was computers (this includes phones). When I was growing up, computers weren't so popular and cyber cafes were a big deal. But luckily for me, my landlady's daughter back then had a desktop computer and I was very fascinated with it. I spent a lot of time with her whenever and watched how she used the computer. From there, I slowly learned how to navigate a computer and do basic things. I also applied the knowledge I gained back then to mobile phones because they were similar and that was how I became a pro at using a phone from a very young age and helped people to solve their phone problems

I also memorized the computer keyboard and how each keys were placed, and that became very useful many years later when I went to a computer school. These days, I'm basically a god when it comes to using a computer and it's mostly because I started being around them from a very young age. I already knew where each key was on a keyboard and that made it very easy to learn typing and my typing speed is currently around 65 wpm. It might seem like an average speed but I make up for it by being very accurate (97 - 98% accuracy).

I remember when my friends saw me typing for the first time and their question was; "you don't look at the keyboard?" 😅 Anyway, my high school didn't even teach us about computers back then, we didn't even have a computer lab and the one time we did a computer subject, we were only taught theories like the history of computers (which in my opinion is a useless thing to know), input and output devices, and other basic computer knowledge. Right now, I have taken things to another level by learning programming, specifically web development. I fell in love with computers from a young age, so it only makes sense that I'm in a field that deals directly with them.

I honestly think that the current system of school is outdated and kids need to learn better things. A lot of things I know today weren't learned in school, but that doesn't mean that school didn't have any effect on me but most of the things I learned back then aren't useful to me today. For instance, how is the Almighty formula I learned in mathematics back then useful in my life today? I crammed all those formulas back then just to pass my exams and after that, I completely forgot about them. I think a better approach to teaching kids in this current age is to use more of a hands-on approach.

I mean they should be a lot of practical applications of what they are taught rather than just leaving things to their imagination. It's not enough to teach them about computer input and output devices, a show them these things on a computer and how they work with one another. Also, I see no use for a lot of mathematical concepts kids are taught in school, after all, what we use as adults in our everyday lives are just basic algebra (addition, subtraction and others). Nobody goes around looking for the hypotenuse of their sandwich or using Pythagoras' theory to calculate how much change a cashier owes you.

Thanks for reading

This is my entry for April Inleo Prompt, day 16. Click the link to also participate.

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