Life Skills for Your Future
Do you know how to open a bank account? Do you know how to write a check? Rent an apartment or apply for a credit card? Do you feel prepared to face the world? Chances are, you answered no to most of those questions. The only way you may have learned these things is on your own trial and error or even having to ask family and friends. More than likely school has yet to teach you these essential life skills.
All students need to be given a life skills education. Lots of people would assume that young people are learning these things from their parents, as that is who they are raised from. However, depending on a child’s circumstance, that is not always the case. Chandler Dolberry says, “Not all scholars grow up in a home with a parent that is successful and thriving. Some parents aren’t qualified to teach these lessons, but that’s not the students’ fault.” We can’t just assume that students are being taught these skills somewhere. If we want to make sure that everyone learns these skills, they need to be a regular part of the school day rather than an extra class or advisory.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly okay to learn history or calculus. But unless you’re planning on being a history professor or a mathematician, you probably won’t ever use that knowledge in your life. But how often do we deal with money issues? Pay bills and taxes? Every single day. Advanced academic skills aren’t going to help everyone as they grow older. Most of their life situations will have nothing to do with calculus, Shakespeare, or biology. The education system today tries to incorporate teaching these skills woven into other subjects, but this doesn’t always work.
When I asked Chandler if he thought teaching basic life skills in a class would benefit students he responded with, “Very much so. There are plenty of parents out there who do not have good money management skills, and who aren’t good influences on their own kids. If a kid were to learn these skills from their parents, they would be set up for failure.” Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of good parents out there, but there are also the few kids that we seem to put aside or don’t acknowledge that have this issue. The education system should treat every scholar equally. Ultimately, the responsibility falls on educators and parents as a whole.
The school system is any easy system to get around. A student’s life usually consists of memorizing whatever material is needed during that time period, taking their exam, and then forgetting everything. It’s a never ending cycle. This is why some students feel as if they aren’t really “prepared” for the world they are about to have to face.I took a survey over 100 middle school and high school students and asked them if they would like to have this taught in classrooms and 94% of the students I surveyed said yes. That’s only 6 students opposing to the teaching!
Right now do you think your friends are prepared and ready to face life after high school? If my peers were thrown into real life at this moment, I don’t think they would know what to do with themselves.
