Many young people come out of high school completely unprepared for life. I know I was. My folks did their best but there was so much I didn’t know how to do. I couldn’t balance a checkbook, didn’t know how to write up a proper budget, didn’t know how to add air to car tires, and a whole host of other things. Now, much of this was due to my own disinterest in most things that were useful. So again, I’m really not blaming my folks. I went to an alternative high school and the type of class I am about to outline is something they could easily have done.
I would call the class “Life Skills.” It would cover all the little things that everyone needs to know, but few remember to teach. Here are some of the subjects it would cover:
Basic cooking and nutrition (it’s not just for Home EC students)
Basic money skills, like how bank accounts work, how checks work, how debit and credit cards work, how a credit score works
Simple automotive maintenance. How to tell when your tires are low, what to do if the check engine light comes on, how to change wipers and washer fluid. Simple stuff.
How to rent an apartment, what to expect when bills are due, reasonable expectation of cost, ways of approaching landlords if you have a problem.
Now, the list could go on and on. But it isn’t difficult to imagine a Life Skills class like this. It could cover a lot of the simple, basic things that make life so much easier – those things we may or may not get from our parents, or that we may not be receptive to when someone tries to teach us. I think our kids would be a lot better prepared for the world with a class like this. It would sure be a heck of a lot more useful than “Global Citizenship” or rot like that.
Would a class like that have been useful to you?
Mindflight 