American high schools fall woefully short when it comes to actually preparing young adults to live independently. I'm 24-years-old, I've been out of high school for 6 years and even with that distance I still can't look back and say it was time well spent. I can't say that as a young adult I felt at all prepared to move on with my life when I graduated. How am I supposed to become a real adult who's capable of fending for myself if I don't have the tools to do so? How can you do something no one ever taught you how to do? You can't, not efficiently, anyway. Parents can only teach you so much and it's important that we have professional educators there to pick up where parents leave off.
Don't get me wrong, I love history and literature, but I can't help but feel that high schools could do a lot better at setting graduates up for success. After senior year you're churned out into the world, not entirely on your own in most cases, but feeling for the first time what it feels like to be an adult. You'll be starting your actual career, learning how to manage your household, and suffering through every little crisis in-between. How many of you know how to change a tire? How to handle an audit? Can right a proper workplace appropriate email? Too many of us have been sent out into the world with limited knowledge of how to take care of ourselves. High schools should be doing more to teach future adults how to be efficient adults when there's no one around to help. That being said, here are 11 classes that should be part of a core high school curriculum.
1. Comprehensive Sex Education
It's so important and most schools don't require much more than abstinence only workshops. Teaching young adults about the proper methods of birth control, in-depth sexual anatomy, how to handle sex mentally and emotionally, and taking the "scare factor" out of sex-ed, should be a priority. A 2012 study shows that teens who receive a high quality sex education are more likely to remain abstinant longer and were also found to make healthier sexual choices, such as choosing a partner within their own age range.
This class is pretty basic, I think everyone pretty much understands what it entails. It's important that someone who is either going off to college or going off to live on their own knows how to fend for themselves. Knowing how to cook, sew, and efficiently clean and organize would help take a lot of stress off of both young adults and parents. Understanding kitchen safety -how to put out grease fires, not cross contaminating foods while cooking, and avoiding mixing household cleaners and chemicals is definitly a bit of useful information.
3. Practical Math
There are some things that you'd learned in a regular math class that would come up here but this class would expand on it in a more "real world" way. For instance, most people already know how to deduct percentages from prices when something's on sale and account for sales tax without having to just mindlessly round. In some cases this class could be a refresher but also open up a door for those who might still struggle with understanding those concepts and may have gotten left behind... like me...because I'm bad at math. I mean, like, really bad!
It would also cover proper budgeting, taxes, audits, how to open a bank account, savings, checkbook balancing, loans, interest, debt, credit, credit cards, and stocks and bonds. Yeah, that's a lot, but it's really useful information. These are things we need to know in order to function as adults.
4. Practical Mechanics
"A new survey, finds 52% of U.S. teens ranging from 15 to 17 years old don't know how to replace a tire." That's not great. And what's more, it's dangerous. Imagine being stranded on the side of the road alone with a flat tire not knowing what to do. It's important that kids who are going to be driving are able to take care of their vehicles at least long enough to get it to a professional. Young adults need to be taught how to change a tire, check the tire pressure, change their oil and coolant, and be able to identify "bad sounds" made by their cars. It's the same as understanding your body well enough to tell the doctor exactly what hurts. It'll make life a lot easier on everyone if when something went wrong with our cars we were able to effectively tell a mechanic what we know about the problem. You just need to understand the very basics of taking care of your car so that you can be safe.
5. Self Defense
The focus of this class would be on protecting yourself and getting away from an attacker. Some people think that only women would benefit from such a class but men would also benefit, despite what we see in movies they don't inherently know how to fight. Each class would be catered to the strengths of either sex and teach effective maneuvers for escaping an attacker. Students would learn how to stay aware of their surroundings, how to look confident rather than like an "easy target" (I know that one sounds weird but it's a real technique), and how to disarm a weapon wielding attacker which is becoming more and more necessary. Since this article kind of focuses on young adults going to college, I feel I should highlight the importance of such a class given the high rate of violence on college campuses (mostly against young women).
6. First Aid and Emergency Response Skills
This is another one that seems rather obvious. I really can't stress how important this is. As someone with anxiety, it would give me such a piece of mind to know that I had the skill to help someone who was in danger because of a medical emergency. An in-depth class on how to administer first aid both on yourself and others is extremely useful for everyday life. Knowing how to help someone who has fallen unconscious, how to handle someone who's bleeding, and having the ability to assist someone of any age or body type (or even species when it comes to pets) is priceless information. As well, It's important for everyone to know how to use EpiPens and know what to do if someone is having an attack (diabetic, asthma, seizure, heart attack, stroke, or allergic reaction). I don't think anyone should leave high school without knowing how to perform CPR (being certified) and the Heimlich Maneuver on anyone, yourself included for those who would be living alone. I can't be the only one who thinks about that!
7. Self-Care and Dealing with Emotions
You have to love yourself. You have to know how to take care of yourself both physically and mentally. The problem is, a lot of people don't know how to do the latter. This class would do a lot in the way of helping young adults to cope with stress and taking the stigma away from mental illness. It's about knowing when you need to stop and help yourself. It would address self esteem issues in all genders and help students to learn how to deal with their emotions in a healthy way. "Suicide was the second leading cause of death among teenagers ages 15-19 in 2011," said ChildTrends.org. KidsHealth.org reported a few of the reasons why a teen might commit suicide including anger, guilt, rejection, and bullying. All of that can cause low self esteem which then has the potential to affect your entire life. Being unable to deal with these emotions, not being able to understand them can lead to mental illnesses like depression. Teens are very susceptible to severe emotional distress with very little help in learning how to deal effectively. And given that substance abuse is linked to depression and anxiety (seeking solace in something that dulls the pain) the class could potentially steer young adults away from serious drug and alcohol problems.
8. Workplace Etiquette and Team Work Skills
It's essential that we all learn how to be professional. We need to take better care in making sure that any person who graduates high school knows how to write a resume and a cover letter. It's always surprising to me how many young adults don't know how to compose a professional email. You don't have to sound like Shakespeare, people, but please don't use emojis either. There is, in fact, a happy medium between a letter to the queen and a text to your best friend.
Team work skills are also important because you are undoubtedly going to have to work with people you don't like and you're going to have to suck it up. Team Work means being a good leader when you need to be and an excellent worker when you're not. The class teaches professionalism in all its forms and gives young adults the confidence to enter the workforce.
9. Studying and Critical Thinking
These are practically important skills that you have to know, point blank! Knowing how to effectively manage time and do good research makes life a lot easier. Understanding how to sort through websites based on which ones are legitimate and which ones are less reliable (.com vs .org), it helps more than just those who are writing essays and articles. The same goes for being able to browse through a library or bookstore to find the exact materials you need. Proper research saves time and money (think buying a car or finding the best price for holiday gifts on a budget). Fact checking and critical thinking helps you to form better, more accurate opinions.
10. Comprehensive Political and Government Studies
This class would focus on the real world political climate that we live in now. A look at government not as we wish it were but how it actually is. The goals would include understanding the platforms of both parties, third party options, and the power of the youth vote. It can be very difficult to wade through political and legal jargon in order to understand the actual issues so it's pivotal that young adults are taught what things mean so they can be the most informed voters possible. There would be an in-depth look at the importance of local elections, as well as national and help teens discern fact from bias, something that's extremely difficult to do.
11. Health and Nutrition
A lot of people really don't understand how to be healthy and it makes it that much more important that this be taught in schools. Young adults, especially ones heading to college, are not exactly known for being healthy. Instilling in them the exact importance of being healthy will help them know how to make better choices on their own. Understanding what exactly our bodies need to function and why, what vitamins do what, that's all essential information people are really missing out on.
The class would also help teens to identify what unhealthy relationships with food look like and educating them on the prevalence of eating disorders. It's important that the class be body positive, meaning that it doesn't stress being a certain body type as healthy. Rather is boasts that eating right and getting exercise is what makes a person healthy. There's an important difference between fat-phobia and healthiness that could also be the difference between helping someone and hurting them.
I really think all of these classes are important and I find it unfair that we expect so much from people who haven't been taught how to function in a rather unforgiving environment. Give graduates the tools to excel so that they can confidently tackle life. We can't continue to to push them out of high school and suddenly demand that they know how to take care of themselves. Make it a part of the core curriculum.
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