What other countries teach that North American schools don't

Sweden's national timetable sets 130 hours of lessons in food, home and money for every pupil between grades 1 and 9. The national syllabus has them make a budget, learn what buying on credit means, and study their rights as a consumer.

In the US and Canada, whether a child learns the same things depends on the state or province, the district, and often one teacher who decided it mattered. This article looks at what other countries have written into law and national curricula, using their own official documents.

A rule on paper is not the same as a skill in someone's hands. Where the data show a gap between the two, we say so.

The Nordic model: food, home and money as real subjects

In Finland, home economics is one of the subjects every pupil takes. The national decree on lesson hours gives it at least three “annual weekly lessons” in grades 7 to 9. That equals three lessons a week for one school year. Crafts are compulsory from grade 1 to grade 9.

Sweden calls its subject home and consumer studies, and it runs from grade 1 to grade 9. From the 2024/25 school year, its time in the national timetable rose from 118 to 130 hours, though schools may move up to 20% of a subject's hours under “school's choice”. The syllabus covers cooking, hygiene, food safety and comparing unit prices. In grades 7 to 9 it adds making a budget, buying on credit, signing up for subscriptions, borrowing and saving, and consumer rights.

Norway's Food and health subject sets national goals for the end of years 4, 7 and 10. By the end of year 4, a child should be able to follow food-hygiene rules, use simple cooking methods and measurements, sort food waste and make simple meals.

Denmark's Folkeskole Act makes food knowledge (madkundskab) compulsory in grades 5 and 6. The same law lists three compulsory topics taught alongside the subjects: road safety; health, sex education and family studies; and education and jobs. It also requires every school to measure pupils' wellbeing once a year, in order to follow and strengthen it.

Japan and China: daily life is on the timetable

Japan passed its Basic Act on Shokuiku, or food and nutrition education, in 2005. It asks national and local government to help schools serve school meals suited to each school and its community, and to give children hands-on food experiences such as farm work, cooking and recycling food waste.

“Food and nutrition” plays the most important role in children's cultivation of humanity and acquisition of life skills.

Japan's national Course of Study has every pupil take home economics in grades 5 and 6. Children learn to cook rice and miso soup, to plan how they spend money and shop, and to clean and tidy a home. Outside lessons, the curriculum's special activities include the school lunch period, used to build healthy eating habits, and duty rosters such as cleaning.

China sets a weekly minimum. A 2020 directive from the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council requires at least one lesson of labour education a week in primary and secondary schools. It asks families to help children master household tasks such as washing clothes and cooking, and to learn one or two new life skills each year. From autumn 2022, labour became a separate subject in grades 1 to 9, with its own national standard.

Water safety: a national standard, and its limits

The Netherlands has three national swimming diplomas: A, B and C. In 2024, 38% of children aged 6 to 12 held all three, up from 27% in 2012. These are self-reported figures from a national survey, the Vrijetijdsomnibus, analysed by the Mulier Instituut.

The same research shows what a standard cannot do on its own. Dutch schools have had no legal duty to teach swimming since 1985, so lessons are mostly up to parents. In 2024, 14% of children aged 6 to 12 had no diploma at all. Across the 2020, 2022 and 2024 surveys combined, it was 33% in the lowest-income fifth of homes, against 5% in the highest.

In Germany, the beginner badge is the Seepferdchen, or “seahorse”: jump in from the edge, swim 25 metres, pick up an object from shoulder-deep water, and know the pool rules. The German Life Saving Association (DLRG) states plainly that this is not proof of safe swimming. Its safe-swimming badges start with Bronze: a head-first jump, then 15 minutes of swimming covering at least 200 metres.

First aid, mental health and life online

Since September 2020, health education has been compulsory in England's state-funded schools. Revised guidance took effect on 1 September 2026. Under it, primary pupils learn how to make a clear call to emergency services, and to report an incident rather than film it. They also learn the water safety code. Secondary pupils learn CPR, what a defibrillator is for and who can use one.

Singapore's Character and Citizenship Education syllabus, used in primary schools since 2022, covers mental health, cyber wellness, family life and sexuality education. Its mental health strand teaches children to tell stress from distress, and to know when and where to seek help.

In Germany, the state of Bavaria requires a five-day project week on everyday skills at state and municipal schools: once in grades 1 to 4, and again in grades 5 to 9. The themes are nutrition, health, consumer choices, the environment, running a household and acting in the digital world.

The US and Canada: a patchwork

The United States has no national curriculum, so each state decides. The Council for Economic Education's 2026 survey counts 39 states that require a personal finance course to graduate from high school, four more than in 2024. In 26 of them it is a stand-alone course; in 13 it is built into another course. Over the same two years, the number requiring economics fell by four, to 22.

Canada leaves education to its provinces and territories. Ontario now has a financial literacy graduation requirement. Students who began grade 9 in 2025–26 or later must score at least 70% on financial literacy modules in their Grade 10 Career Studies course. The requirement takes effect in 2026–27.

These are real gains, and some North American schools already teach cooking, first aid or swimming by choice. But the new rules mostly cover money, and mostly in high school. Outside money, rules on food, home skills, water safety, first aid and mental health vary even more from place to place. Two children a few miles apart can leave school with very different skills. That is a design problem, not a teacher problem.

What a complete curriculum would include

Put the strongest parts of these systems together and a clear outline appears. Each area below is already required somewhere. A few details, such as filing taxes and checking AI answers, go further than any rule in this article.

• Water: by age 10, swim to a real standard such as the full Dutch A, B and C set or the German Bronze badge, not just a beginner's badge.
• Food: hygiene and simple meals in the early grades; by 15, plan, shop for and cook a week of meals on a budget.
• Home: shared daily duties at school, as in Japan's cleaning rosters and China's labour lessons, plus basic repairs and laundry.
• Emergencies: in primary school, how to call 911 and give an exact address; in secondary school, CPR and how to use a defibrillator.
• Mind: how to tell stress from distress and where to get help, including the 988 crisis line, which works in both the US and Canada.
• Life online: spotting scams and phishing, protecting accounts, and checking claims and AI answers against a real source.
• Money: unit prices, budgets, credit, borrowing and saving, and consumer rights; by 18, filing a tax return with the IRS or CRA, and knowing how a 401(k) or IRA works, or an RRSP or TFSA.
• Relationships: consent, disagreement and family life, taught as skills to practise rather than facts to memorise.

Most of the systems in this article made one decision that North America mostly has not: these skills belong to every child, with a set age and a set amount of time. Until that changes, the gap is filled at home, or not at all.