10 Life Lessons Learned in Elementary School

Published on June 16, 2017 at 6:53 am by Amra Karčić in Lists

Elementary school is very important in every child’s psychological development, we never stop learning life lessons, but in this article, we focused on 10 life lessons learned in elementary school.

Children constantly learn from observing others, therefore it is no surprise that children acquire small wisdoms from various everyday situations in elementary school. Elementary school can be a very stressful experience for children, especially the first grade when everything is new and unfamiliar. It is in elementary school where children first learn how to interact with others, they acquire critical thinking and learn the importance of constant learning. Teachers have an immense influence on children; they are truly the leaders who shape our future leaders. Nevertheless, children can also teach their teachers or at least remind them of honesty, joy and innocence that the children carry in the hearts. If you don’t remember your experience from elementary school and you prefer your memories from high school then read the article on Important Life Lessons that you Learn in High School. As we said before, we never truly stop acquiring life lessons.

10 Life Lessons Learned in Elementary School

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Every school teaches differently, whether you had a bad teacher or a good one (if you’re lucky) there’s always a lesson. For example, children in Japanese elementary schools learn from a young age about the importance of cleaning after themselves. Some schools in Tokyo encourage students to spend 20 minutes a day cleaning a school. Imagine all life lessons children learn about kindness, sharing and cleaning the space where they spent time. Once children learn how to appreciate the space they’re in they will never violate it and destroy it with carelessness.

In order to conduct a list below we’ve consulted pages such as Our Everyday Life, Edutopia, and Read Simple, where readers shared their significant life lessons learned in elementary school. After reading different experiences and adding some of our own, we tried to highlight these 10 life lessons that are generally the ones the majority shares. As always don’t be a stranger reader and share your experience in the comments. We would love to hear some of your interesting life lessons you learned in elementary school.

10. Respecting authority

One of the most important things in life is teaching our children how to give respect. Giving respect to elders is crucial for a child’s future success because that way children learn about their importance as well, and about all the contribution they can give once they get older. What is important is that the only way we can teach respect is by showing it. Children love when teachers or anyone else talks with them with respect, they feel as someone sees them as their equal. Respecting authority is significant for students because by learning to respect parents, friends and most importantly, themselves they have a high chance to succeed in all aspects of life. Having self-respect is crucial for a child’s development, it teaches us empathy, and it is much easier to give others what we already own. A respectful child is polite, kind, honest and reliable, all the qualities needed for success.

9. Socializing

Elementary school is definitely the period when learning how to socialize is crucial. It is crucial because once we learn in elementary school how to talk with our friends, teachers, parents we take that knowledge later in life when we need it for our jobs, finding love, new friends, etc. Socializing is a life-long process but we do form basic skills in elementary school. Most of the time we learn in school by observing others and not from the books. Socializing is healthy because by learning how to form healthy relationships we form a healthy lifestyle.

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8. Independent and teamwork

Learning independence and teamwork that are next on our list of life lessons learned in elementary school are among the most rewarding skills we can obtain in early stages of our lives because they can get us far in life. Teachers always encourage students to think for themselves even though it means giving wrong answers in many cases. Being able to work independently can give students the confidence they need. Providing them feedback on each task can help them form their own opinions and positive attitude. Teamwork is important just as much as independent work, if not even more. Teamwork teaches children to respect peers, to share knowledge, to accept an opinion they don’t agree with and to join forces together in order to reach the goal. TheSchoolRun has highlighted for parents why teamwork is so important: “Being part of a team enables your child to move from more intrapersonal (individual) ways of thinking to interpersonal (communicating with others). It will help a child in all areas of their learning, and help them to feel part of a community, too.” This life learned lesson is important because we work with others our whole life, it is important to know how to communicate.

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7. Hard work pays off

At number 7 on our list of life lessons learned in elementary school, we have the one that teaches us the value of hard work in the elementary school that is also very beneficial for future. One of the most valuable lectures we listened as youngsters is that we could become anything we want if we are willing to work hard for it. Nothing in life comes easy, good grades certainly don’t fall from the sky. But once we learn that after investing our time and effort into something, good things start happening. Not everyone is successful in math or biology, but one of the greatest praises a teacher can give to a student is an acknowledgment that student is trying and not giving up. Determination and hard work are great tools we learn to appreciate.

6. Learn from mistakes

It was incredibly difficult but so rewarding to learn in elementary school that making mistakes is not the end of the world and we can recover and learn from them. I think this life lesson is especially valuable for all the introverts who wanted to disappear after making some mistake or after some innocent embarrassment situation. Learning that Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before discovering the light bulb is more than comforting. Fail, do better, try again is the mantra we practice whole life and that’s why we found it important to put this on our list of 10 life lessons learned in elementary school.

5. There’s always an obstacle in life

Being in elementary school can be pretty stressful, every bad grade, broken friendship would mean the “end of the world”. Not to mention that there is always a bully in our lives, whether that person is bullying us or others, our safe bubble is never completely safe. However, we grow, we learn that no obstacle is there forever and there is no such a thing as life without obstacles. In elementary an obstacle could be hard exam, bully but later in life that is an angry boss (grown up bully), high bills…but it is ok because we learned to deal with it.

4. Bad decisions have consequences

Every decision has a consequence and we learn that best in elementary school. If you choose not to study – bad grade, if you choose to disobey the teacher – detention, etc. We are not trying to say that obeying is always good in elementary school, just that every act brings something back. If you are seeing someone being bullied and choose not to do anything, that makes you a passive bully too. However, when we’re young, parents usually make decision for us but once we are in school we are in charge. Making decisions is something we have to do every day no matter what. Remember, avoiding to do something, staying passive is also a decision.

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3. Changes are inevitable

We are continuing our list of life lessons learned in elementary school with chankges. Yes, the changes…in elementary school every change would make our hearts beat faster, whether that would mean we had to change school, class or a teacher, it was never easy. Nevertheless, changes are inevitable and crucial for our spiritual growth. We learn in elementary school that change is something we face every now and then. Later in life we change jobs, friends and lifestyles and all of a sudden, we’re in elementary school all over again, still a little afraid, but ready.

2. Being organized

Teachers showing the good side about being organized is one of the most rewarding lessons we use often later in our lives. Being organized in elementary school would ease our homework so much and all thanks to the expectations teachers bestowed upon us. We didn’t know how a desk should look like until we came in elementary school and faced teacher who always demands to have a sharp pencil and clean desk. Even later in live our organizational skills are growing, we make lists before going to market, we make to-do lists not to forget something. However, there are people who like to work and better work in chaos. Now, let’s see the number one on our list of life lessons learned in elementary school.

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1. Be yourself

One of the most valuable life lessons, that deserves to be number one on our list of 10 life lessons learned in elementary school, is a lesson to be yourself. Someone was good at being popular, nerdy, sporty, kind and often we tried to be a little bit of everything but that’s impossible. Trying to be like others can be so time-consuming, just because someone has more friends and is more popular than us should not mean we should start dressing, talking and thinking like them. The process of loving yourself is so long but so rewarding, once we learn we are unique in elementary school and start living our own life, the way we define it, we become the person we are proud of.