High Schools Should Implement Mandatory Life Skills Classes
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- How many of you know how to handle money or pay taxes or to apply for life/health/auto insurance? How many of you struggle with communicating emotions or communicating in general? How many of you are struggling to “adult”? Me too! I have no idea how to do any of those things. It is not because of my own ignorance, but simply because no one taught me - not even my parents. If most of my youth was and still is spent in school, why has my education not consisted of life skills such as these? I believe that all schools should have a mandatory life skills class so that students, like me, can enter adulthood knowing what I’m doing, and so that students’ education, health, and welfare can be improved. Today I will be speaking about the importance of life skills for adolescents, the crucial life skills that every student should have that aren’t taught in schools, and what we can do to help implement them as mandatory classes in schools.
- Life skills are important for so many reasons. In Coley and Dwivedi’s book “Life Skills Education through Schools”, life skills are said (according to the World Health Organization) to improve academic performance, parent-child relationships, self-confidence and self-esteem, and prevention of substance abuse. And in Beatrix A. Hamburg’s report, he calls for the implementation of life skills training in schools, as they can help students “survive, live with others, and succeed”.
- According to a journal article entitled “The Significance of Life Skills Education, its numerous authors state that ‘education’ is important, but education to support and live life better is more important. Math, science, and history all have their contribution to education, but do they “strengthen the ability of an individual to meet the needs and demands of the present society” or help deal with issues like “poverty, suicide, job security, or unemployment”?
- A journal and study by the Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing was done to investigate the the effects of life skills training on psychological distress of 100 adolescent males and 100 adolescent females, it was found that, those who participated in 8 sessions of life skills training showed decreased levels of psychological distress. This study proves that life skills training and education can improve the mental health of students, as “up to 1/3 of all adolescents’ population meet the criteria for depression and anxiety”.
- Now that we know why life skills education and training is so important for adolescents (and in general), it is also important to know some of these crucial life skills that aren’t taught in schools, as given by “20 Life Skills not Taught in School”.
- Conversation (communication)
- Critical Thinking
- How to Handle Money (taxes)
- Dating & Romantic Relationships
- Home, Car, and Health Insurance
- Personal Credit & Credit Cards
- Cooking
- Finding a Job
- First Aid
- Time Management
- Without these life skills, it is hard to survive in the real world, because everyone expects you to know what you’re doing… even though no one has ever taught you these things. How am I supposed to survive as an adult when the only skills I have are knowing that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and that there were two world wars?
- I’ve personally had to learn these life skills on my own; even when I asked for my mom to teach me some of these skills she replied with “you don’t need to know that yet”, but I actually, really do. My parents expect me to make my own choices, which is great, but I don’t even understand half of the choices I’m going to have to make on my own.
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