What They Forgot to Teach You at School details several aspects of life that once known can alter the satisfaction in life. The lessons provided are ones that seem to form a base for a satisfying life that one may not have encountered in a clearly explained way in school, but do hold great weight in everyday happiness.

This was an interesting book! It wasn't what I expected, but it was short and interesting. I found the lessons like how to forgive someone, how to regulate your emotions, being kind, and understanding your childhood to be fun to read about.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars. It’s probably a mark of having watched too many School of Life videos on YouTube that I heard Alain de Botton’s voice as I read this relatively short self-help book. Chapters have titles like You Don’t Need Permission, There is no Destination, and Others are a Lot Like You. For those familiar with the videos, you’ll know what to expect from these essays. For those who aren’t: they basically put into words all the things you’re worried about and why you’re worrying about the wrong thing. Also, worrying is pointless. You’re normal, you freak. But this book may help you put things into perspective and be a little braver in your life.

Hmmm... A little education is definitely a dangerous thing, and especially in this instance, for I asked for a review copy of this not fully aware of what kind of book it'd be. I thought it might be a gift book of things we need to know but have to rely on an older sibling to ask – the one-handed bra removal for the lads, the change-into-a-one-piece-swimsuit-while-remaining-fully-clothed for the gals. Nor is this the read that tells a young person what they'll become, concerning subjects off-curriculum, for example that yes you do eventually 'get' the taste of wine and olives, etc, but not until your thirties, if then.

No, what we have here is a philosophical self-help kind of tract, written in response to what school does to you. So some of us may be on an enclosed, unwanted path of life because school brought that on; chapter two looks at how the seize-the-day ethos may have been lost while under education's wing; our alma maters are not all that great, and certainly not definitively greater than us, and need their ivory towers being taken down a level or two.

The whole book, whether looking at the adult world of work, dating, dating at work, anything, is kind of reductive, declaring that we never change once we leave the cot – that our problems with dating, self-worth, the values we give to other people and their level of interest in us, are all primal, and therefore things we should have been trained against some time between lunch and double PE. It didn't strongly convince, and added to the fact I didn't find it completely clever or helpful to get everything connected to a lesson left off the timetable, I found the book a touch poorly written at times. Chapter three, where we are told we ought to quit worrying about how we're perceived, because we so seldom are, is full of so many trite examples there's no benefit to be had, and the lesson is still almost missing.

All told I think I'll stick to the concept of a broad, proper education added to some encouragement towards common sense, than these uncredited, low-in-authority pages. One and a half stars; see me after school.