Everyone is talking about how kids are now behind in their education. But compared to today’s adults, in many ways they are ahead.

Here are the lessons they’ve learned thoroughly, that will seed their decisions for the rest of their lives, and possibly help them save humanity’s future:

1. If we want to conquer big problems in the world, we’re going to have to work together

2. Listen to science, or a lot of people will suffer and die

3. Pandemics spread if even a minority of people lack adequate healthcare

4. Pandemics spread if even a minority of people lack adequate housing

5. In short, building up wealth while ignoring the poor is woefully short-sighted — like building your mansion on top of a toxic waste dump

6. If even one country is run by a maniac, it can threaten the entire world*

7. In short, today’s youth have learned in their material lives what most previous generations only learned as vague spiritual niceties:

• No One Will Be Free Until All of Us Are Free

• No One Will Be Safe Until All of Us Are Safe

• No One Will Be Healthy Until All of Us Are Healthy

I think instead of worrying about what the kids have lost, we should ask what we adults should incorporate from the foundational lessons our children are learning.

After all, it’s kind of unfair to ask our kids to save the world, when maybe we could learn these lessons, too.

Theoretically, we’re smarter and more mature than children.

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*Right now, one rogue nation can cause unchecked viral spread and subsequent resistant mutations. In the future, the threat might be C02 emissions, nuclear fallout, cyber-terrorism, or some as-yet-unknown threat. The point is that it’s asymmetrical — you can’t just ignore a far-off dictator and expect to be ok in your own distant country. Not anymore.