That's kind've where I was going with it. Basic understanding of the building blocks of society type stuff: power, water, gas, construction, radio, biology, growing food, vehicles, finances, etc.

Thinking back, I just realized the main reason that I was bored to tears in high school wasn't so much that the subjects weren't worth knowing...just that at the time I was being taught formulas without any clear understanding of why it was useful to know it. If you don't know why it's useful to know it, there's very little reason to remember it beyond passing a test.