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After high school, many students start their independent lives away from their parents, either by joining the workforce or attending college. This brings additional responsibilities, such as financial decision-making (filing taxes and paying bills), daily chores and even seemingly trivial tasks like cooking. Most recent graduates struggle with these necessary life skills and face a rocky start after they move out. Although high schools teach plenty of important skills, they ultimately need to focus on helping students develop crucial life skills for living on their own.
One subject that schools barely touch is taxes, and it is hard to understand why. According to Next Gen Personal Finance, only 30 states guarantee a course in personal finance before graduation from high school. Although California recently passed Assembly Bill 2927, which requires all California high schools to offer a semester-long finance education course, many other states do not require this course as a general education requirement. Even in California, this bill will not take effect for another two years. While this change is evidence that schools are beginning to revise policy, more action must be taken more quickly, given the complex and important nature of topics such as taxes.
Additionally, young adults need sufficient knowledge of cooking. Especially given the rise of fast food and delivery options, learning basic nutrition and cooking healthy meals has become an increasingly important skill. If students actively learned nutrition in class, they would have a greater aversion to fast food and possibly turn to cooking homemade meals. Knowledge of nutrition, paired with the ability to cook, would enable young adults to provide for themselves after entering the real world, where their parents do not cook for them.
Most importantly, students should be taught lessons on self-care and mental health. While some may argue that schools have recently been focusing on the importance of mental health, this focus isn’t enough. Instead, additional mental health courses should be taught in school as part of the general education curriculum. This would allow students to better control emotions and manage feelings of stress and depression, both while in school and after graduating. Further skills, such as social skills, could also be taught in similar classes, allowing students to learn more about social cues and interact better with friends at school.
While learning life skills may not directly help students advance in their careers, there are many benefits. Once students graduate and move out, they need to be prepared for life in the real world. If these life skills were taught in all schools across the country, the entire population would be in a much better position.
