The other day, I was taking a much needed break, mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, and stopped when I saw a meme one of my good friends had posted. I chuckled as I read the meme: “I’m glad I learned about parallelograms in high school instead of how to do my taxes. It comes in handy during parallelogram season.”
It’s funny because it’s true— I remember sitting in some of my high school classes thinking about how I would likely never use some of the things I was being taught. I honestly don’t remember the last time I had to use the quadratic formula or had to recall the steps/process of photosynthesis. Unless you enter a career field that will use those specific skills and bits of knowledge, you likely won’t use them much in your adult life (or at least until your kids come home from school needing help on their homework!).
When I was in high school, the requirements to graduate didn’t include any kind of class that taught life skills type of content. You know, the stuff that you use on a fairly regular basis as an adult— budgeting, retirement/savings plans, household tasks like cooking, cleaning, and laundry, basic car maintenance, simple household fixes, basic sewing, and so on. Had my parents not done a pretty good job teaching me these skills, I would have been pretty lost when I moved out on my own. While a good majority of high school students have a parent or guardian they can turn to with life skills questions, many do not. What if, rather than expecting kids to just suddenly know how to be an adult and take care of adult responsibilities, we teach them how to do this and require them to take a class covering these skills prior to graduating?
I know there are many elective courses students can take that teach them these basic life skills. But they are just that— elective. Not every student is going to choose to take a sewing or cooking class. Not every student will want to sit through a financial literacy course. However, I am certain that if they were required to do so, they would come out on the other side more equipped to enter the adult world and carry adult-level responsibilities.
There are many students who would greatly benefit from a course like this. It would provide an excellent opportunity for kids to get hands-on experience with the skills necessary for adult life while still under the care of an experienced adult, and would also give them the chance to make mistakes and learn from them before the cost of said mistakes is higher.
I am sure there are already high schools out there who are integrating some kind of adult-readiness courses, and that’s amazing! It would be even more amazing if all schools nation wide would see the value of such a course and would add it to the list of required courses prior to graduation. Besides, I think it would be a fun class to take— and teach!
When we equip the next generation with the tools they will need in life, they will enter the adult world more confident, more knowledgeable, and more prepared to take on the responsibilities that come with being an adult, and that’s something that we can all benefit from. Knowledge is power, so let’s do our best to arm our students with the knowledge they need to succeed!
