The Most Overlooked Life Skills Class by Sydney

The Most Overlooked Life Skills Class by Sydney - November 2021 Scholarship Essay

What is the point of school? Well, many would argue that the point is to prepare students for the rest of their lives, including college, if they so choose, and other facets of their adult years. However, it seems that among the preparation for higher education or even just a transition into the work force, training in the management of other responsibilities of adult life is forgotten. For this reason, personal finance needs more emphasis in school.
In high school, personal finance can be a required class for graduation, but one that is viewed by students as just that: a class that they’re only taking because they need it to graduate. Students can be heard throughout the school complaining about how they’re “broke” because they went on a shopping spree with their birthday money and now have nothing left when just a few weeks prior their personal finance class was teaching about budgeting. Why does this happen? Simple. During the class, many students will sleep or play games or watch videos, only studying and learning enough to pass the class and not truly taking lessons seriously.
Personal finance is not a joke or an inconvenience. It’s a class that teaches life skills many students desperately need, and they should be encouraged to approach it as such. Perhaps if more students treated personal finance how it should be treated, as truly important to their futures, there would be less debt and poverty nationwide. Isn’t that something worth the extra effort required for schools to emphasize this class?