What’s Wrong With Our Schools: Schools need to start teaching students valuable life skills in the classroom

As I’m nearing the end of my high school life and college is rapidly approaching, I’ve become aware of two things — next year I have to be fully responsible for myself and I have no idea how to do that.

Sure, I can tell you how to integrate a function and write the formula for potassium sulfate, but I still have no idea how to do  laundry — let alone do my own taxes. School has taught me many things for the last 13 years, but none of them include how to be independent, whether it’s financially or personally.

Schools across the country need to devote more time in their financial literacy classes and make sure students are getting proper education — it’ll help them be better adults.

As students, information is pounded into our heads when we cram it in until the test. Schools spend so much time preaching the importance of taking AP science and math classes while classes like Financial Literacy and Health are put on the back burner. Even though the school requires that we take these to graduate, you can’t argue with me when I say they’re a joke.

I spent my entire financial literacy class (sorry mom and dad) watching Gossip Girl while my teacher played Dave Ramsey videos. I took online health and fast-forwarded through the hours of boring videos. If school’s don’t take these classes more seriously, we’re going to have an entire generation of 30-year-olds going over to their parent’s houses asking their dad to help with their taxes.

Schools need to recognize how imortant it is for high school students to learn valuable life skills through classes like financial literacy and health. We need to be able to graduate high school having these skills and knowing this kind of information to be successful in life. There needs to be a bigger emphasis on what these classes teach and schools should figure out a way for students to focus and learn the information, whether that’s through competition or games. Because right now, students are just going through the motions, and it’s not doing anyone any favors.

I can only imagine what my life is going to be like when I’m older and I have to get a 401K, which I still only half-understand after my parent’s explained it a million times. I’ll graduate high school knowing stoichiometry and trig proofs, but I can’t tell you what an IRA (individual retirement account) is.

In a survey conducted by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015, the U.S. ranked seventh out of 15 countries in financial literacy education, trailing China, Canada, Russia and Australia. So you’re telling me the U.S. can be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but we can’t teach high school students how to do taxes and be financially responsible?

In addition, many students in SMSD and across the state have started to take Health class online. And sorry if you didn’t know this, but online classes aren’t exactly educational and don’t measure up to the classes offered in school where you’re being taught by a teacher, not a computer. Students aren’t getting what they need from the health classes across the country.

According to the School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS) in 2014, only 57.9% of schools at all levels required Health Education and in 2016 out of 613 schools, only 361 schools required education on suicide prevention. Practical life skills and lessons are being overshadowed by Biology and senior papers.

Point blank — schools across the country need to start putting more effort into classes that have the potential to help you for the rest of your life, like Financial Literacy and Health. Trust me, I get it, MAP scores are important, but shouldn’t schools want to help students grow up to be efficient, happy and healthy adults? To me, it’s obvious, by the time we graduate high school, not only should we be able to tell someone the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, we should know how to do our own taxes.