You’ve finally done it. You have just checked into your dorm upstate at your dream college; give yourself a pat on the back! There’s just one major problem: you have no idea what food to cook, how to do your laundry or how to make the insurance payments on that snazzy new 2022 Toyota Corolla your parents got you over the summer. Most students at Northwood currently do not have accessible places at school to learn the skills needed to survive in the real world, which is why school districts across the state should offer a mandatory life skills course in high school.
“Years ago, we used to offer Adult Living,” Northwood principal Leslie Roach said. “We stopped because we didn’t have any students taking it.”
Northwood currently offers several courses distantly related to life skills such as Culinary Arts, World Languages and Career Link. Several programs such as the Life Skills course are also available for certain groups of students who qualify for special education support services.
“The biggest thing I wish I learned at Northwood is probably taxes,” Northwood alumni and UC Riverside student Lance Raymond said. “I also wish that Northwood had a time management workshop because it’s an important skill to learn.”
While the majority of students may currently seem apathetic towards the idea of life skills classes, 81% of college graduates in 2021 wished they had taken an adulting course before graduation according to a study by SWNS Digital.
“Principals and assistant principals want to make sure that their students are receiving every opportunity to succeed in life,” director of Overcoming Obstacles, a service which teaches life skills to children, Vince Capone said. “By implementing comprehensive life skills instruction in their schools, some principals are doing just that.”
If more schools wish to implement a mandatory life skills course into their graduation requirements, they must construct the class curriculum to be robust and unlike the somewhat outdated home economics courses of the past.
Teaching about interacting properly with law enforcement, managing personal finances and the basics of cleaning and hygiene that students need to survive is essential to help students absorb information about self-improvement.
The argument that parents should teach children life skills instead of schools holds some credibility, as many students are able to pick up certain skills from the actions of their parents. However, the problem arises from the fact that some parents may not be able to teach their children valuable skills due to lack of time, knowledge or monetary constraints. In this case, the best course of action would involve schools teaching general adulting classes to supplement what students are learning at home.
While there are scattered discussions surrounding adding life skills courses to Northwood, no concrete plan to implement any exists. To create a life skills course on campus, students have to show renewed interest to convince administrators to add these programs to the curriculum.
