Imagine that you’re in a world where you’re a young adult, fresh out of high school who can complete equations on how to find the radius of a circle, yet you can’t cook a grilled cheese sandwich even if your life counted on it. That is the world we currently live in today, at schools around our country. Students will often ask themselves and teachers, “When will I ever use this in life?” Tell me, when is knowing slope intercept for a graph will ever be used by someone who needs to fix their car? When will knowing how to analyze a book on how someone's emotions connect with the events of the story help someone who needs to know how to pay their taxes when they get a job? This is why I think schools should teach students life skills so that they can manage on their own.

First of all, schools should be required to teach students financial classes. Almost half of the population in the United States doesn’t expect that they’ll have enough money to retire comfortably and that thinking could rise even more if students aren’t taught on how to manage their money right. If they don’t know how to manage their money, they’ll just start spending it and will have too many things to pay off and they could end up working until they’re 80. And currently, debt is rising for fellow Americans and it’ll keep rising if students aren’t taught how to manage their money correctly. They’ll end up buying things that are way too expensive or too many things at once and struggle to pay off and make payments. And a majority of people in the US can’t even afford an emergency expense. People should always prepare for the unexpected and if students out of high school encounter themselves in such a situation and they can’t pay, then it’ll add more to their debt. That's why students should be taught financial classes so they can manage on their own easier.

Secondly, schools should bring back home economics classes back for students. Think of when you get out of high school and live on your own, in your own house,. Without parents to cook you dinner and all of the rest of your meals. Because when you get to live by yourself, you gotta cook for yourself, not your parents. More responsibilities come when you’re out of high school, and cooking yourself a meal is one of them. Being able to cook a decent meal for yourself is very important because you won’t need to order yourself a meal from restaurants all the time and use up all of your money that you got. Besides, you’ll be able to pass down a family recipe for generations to come. And being taught a home economics class will teach you to be more savvy with buying groceries. Sure, you may want to buy all of the main brand stuff, but the off brand products still do their job just as good as the main brand. It’ll save you more money and you’ll live with the ability of cooking yourself a decent meal without buying from restaurants all the time.

Lastly, schools should require that students take an auto shop class. Students who currently have a license and ones getting it in the near future should be educated on how to care of their vehicle. Sure, they may know how to drive a car, but you can’t drive a car without its basic needs. According to Usnews.com, about two thirds of teenage drivers don’t have any knowledge on how to do basic auto repairs for their vehicle. Meaning that they don’t know how to change their oil or how to jump start a car,. which means that they don’t know how to take care of their car. It’s a very important skill to have in our time because the main way of transportation is a car. It’ll help in saving more money for themselves and they won’t have to worry about buying a new car. If students are taught how to take care of their vehicle, it teaches them self reliance. No more will they have to rely on a mechanic to fix their simple problems when they can do it themselves. Schools should teach this because it can help people find a job. If some people don’t know what to do after school, it can help them find a job if they’re interested in this type of work because they already have the knowledge on cars.

Schools should teach these three life skills so that students can leave high school with the knowledge so they can live easier lives. Students should be taught financial, home economics, and auto shop classes. So the next time you’re scheduling your classes during high school, take a look at all of the classes there are, and see if you can get yourself a home ec or financial literacy class because there are so many skills and lessons that need to be taught. You’ll be thankful for doing those classes in the future because your life won’t be as hard and stressful.