Life Survival: The Road Less Taught by Simone

Life Survival: The Road Less Taught by Simone - November 2021 Scholarship Essay

Paying others to do our taxes, Google-ing how to take out a loan, and calling mom or dad after a car wreck because the insurance company is asking a lot of questions we don’t know the answers to. What do all of these situations have in common? The answer is, a lack of preparation for the real world. As students, we memorize and execute some of the most complicated mathematical equations and learn to break down classic literature into the most simple components. And as important these skills can be in specific areas of profession, the majority of the population rarely utilizes them in daily life. Understanding business and general life skills is one of the most important abilities to obtain, and deserves much more emphasis in schools, because of its necessity to every human’s existence and how it can be applied to every area of life.
Knowing how the world works is the beginning of success because this information is essential to the responsibilities every adult must carry out. From basic skills such as how to change a tire, to the best methods of scoring a triumphant interview, to even investing in the stock market, the importance that rests on these things is invaluable. The unfortunate reality, however, is that schools currently do not teach these very elementary ideas hardly at all and often leave it up to the students to figure it out on their own or from their parents. As an eighteen-year-old high school senior, I still have yet to learn how to make my own doctor’s appointment or file an insurance claim, which are vital to adulthood. If my school had a course or curriculum that taught the ins and outs of surviving life, I know hundreds of thousands of students would have been saved from the simple mistake of ‘not knowing’. This is even proven in the Bible in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...” Furthermore, many of my classmates come from troubled backgrounds or divorced homes which, in turn, places them at an even greater disadvantage. Without both parents present/active, in addition to the lack of teaching from school, the student is left with very little resources to learn these skills. Many factors of life itself puts us, as high schoolers, in a place of desperate need and yet is not being fulfilled by the modern day school system.
The emphasis on basic daily competence is simply not covered in education today and is causing a large issue amongst young people. No one seems to know how to do their taxes anymore unless several Youtube videos and instruction manuals are involved. This problem can be greatly avoided if we simply implemented ‘life skills’ into the required curriculum of each and every classroom. If classes such as biology, government, and physical education are required for graduation, an adulthood survival course should definitely be essential as well. The future of our world depends on the ability of the next generation, and personal preparation from our schools would put us one step ahead of the game.