We were once taught to solve equations and memorize historical dates, but never how to handle a heartbreak, or self-doubt, or rejection. We weren’t taught how to eat and care for our body, mind, heart and spirit properly.

Adulthood now feels like a lifelong act of re-teaching and re-parenting ourselves.

We may be learning that real intelligence must be adaptive: that the real test is not how much we know, but how well we evolve and deal with what’s in front of us. So no, we can’t overhaul the education system overnight. But as parents to our kids—and ourselves—we can look to these lessons for a better life:

• that treating people and the planet with kindness and respect is fundamental to build a lasting, loyal community.
• that in a world oversharing everything, guarding one’s dignity and privacy is a quiet form of strength.
• that offering something better and not just something more in a world oversaturated with choice is especially important, as it’s becoming painfully clear that our planet cannot sustain the extractive demands we place upon it.
• that solutions to improve our world should take everyone into consideration, and that products and services should be made to last. 
• that in a world under a spell of bigger, betterand faster, returning our interactions back to a more personal, human scale is our only way to grow in peace and health. 
• that honesty, authenticity and humor will be the best ways to gain trust.
• and that setting our own individual metrics of success and happiness outside of societal expectations is the only kind that sustains.

We are our own and our children’s first and forever teachers. But before we teach them, we must re-educate ourselves—and shed the years and layers of poor habit and convenience, and relearn what it means to truly live, feel, and think adaptively.