FORBID THE THOUGHT, I KNOW, BUT HEAR ME OUT FOR A SECOND.
The Department of Education says that 73% of high school graduates do not graduate from college - some drop out, some don’t even go. That means close to 3/4 of the young adult population go without a complete college education. I’m not even including the one in four students that drop out of high school.
I, for one, am taking a gap year (or two) before going to college for various reasons (a good chunk of the reason having to do with money and the lack of it).
What am I, and others who choose not to go to college (either right away or ever), to do? Get a job? How do you do that? We didn’t learn that in High School!
In fact, I recall not learning a lot of basic life skills in high school - how can that be? Isn’t high school supposed to prepare you for the real world? Oh, no, just college world - so only catering to about 25% us.
Even for those who do go to college - do they know how to cook a healthy, low budget meal? Do their laundry without turning their white underwear pink? Fill out a job resume? File taxes? Organize their time? Change a flat tire or their cars’ oil? Protect themselves against a mugger? How to perform CPR? Put on a condom?
What? No? But, aren’t those things everyone should know?
Correct!
Were we taught them?
Nope!
If you know me, you know of my dissatisfaction of the U.S. Education System, but I am especially annoyed with these shortfalls.
News Flash: Some kids don’t come home to a loving family and a warm cooked meal. Some kids need to know how to take care of themselves, and sometimes, younger siblings, at an early age. Some kids will drop out of high school. Some kids won’t go to college.
But that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to inherently know how to do all these things on our own! Most of the time we don’t have anyone to teach us!
I feel there should be a course, or two, in high school, that we are required to take that concerns these things. For example:
Life Skills 1 & 2;
In this two semester class, learn how to play the Stock Exchange Game, get a job (submitting a resume, preparing for an interview), fill out college applications, submit loan requests, file taxes, manage a bank account, cook, iron clothes, save a life, have safe sex, the correct definitions of rape, life hacks and more! What do you do when you’re facing a burglar or are being robbed? How do you know when your car needs an oil change? What are your rights as a young adult? What alternatives do you have other than going to university? Gain important skills and knowledge that you’ll use for the rest of your life!
Unfortunately, we’re too focused on standardized testing and getting kids through the assembly line that is high school and into college rather than teaching teenagers anything useful.
