Real Life Skills by Nevica

Real Life Skills by Nevica - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

The change I hope to see in education within the next decade is the education of more real-life skills. Of course, the core education that is being taught now is incredibly valuable, students need to learn subjects like English and Math. However, what do those subjects do for anyone if students can’t live their daily life? Some courses that I believe should be integrated into all schools are personal finance, sex education, and trades.
A class I would make a requirement for high school seniors would be any type of Personal Finance. I think it is super essential that before students are thrown out into the real world, they understand how to do things like building a credit score and paying taxes. I have not even the slightest idea how to do anything concerning finances. Once graduating high school, it is super important to understand these concepts so that you can pay for college. I additionally think investing should be taught to the students. If individuals start saving their money at the ripe age of 18 as opposed to when they settle down in an adult job, they would have so much more money set aside by the time they retire.
The next class I believe should be taught in all high schools is Sex Education. In my high school, they told horny 16-year-olds to practice abstinence and then moved on from the conversation. Of course, when kids are told not to do something, that only makes them want to do it more. I personally feel there is no way around making sure all teenagers and young adults never have sex, so as a society we should just accept that it happens and try to educate kids so they can make educated decisions for themself. For example, there are so many types of contraceptives out there. For the longest time, I was under the impression that there was pill birth control and male condoms when in reality there are also things like female condoms and spermicide. I also think it is incredibly important that teenagers are taught about the different types of sexually transmitted infections. If we can’t prevent sex as a whole, I think it is ideal we educate how to have safe sex.
My final hope for education would be to make trades more accessible. Not everyone is cut out for hardcore bookwork. Some kids know they want to fix cars therefore it's hard for them to sit through an art class. Of course, it is important that everyone learns the core subjects but beyond that, I think schools should have programs for the kids that want to go into trades. Maybe have partnerships with local garages so the kids can go into school in the morning, learn math, english, science, and history and then go hands-on work for the rest of the day.
I'm sure there is a lot more than can be done to improve education within the next decade. For now, however, we as a society must take it one step at a time to make it better.