Graduation caps soar, but uncertainty grows as students enter the “real world.”

After years of dedicated education, students eagerly anticipate the day that they’ll finally embrace the responsibilities of the real world. They enter this new stage with a vast amount of knowledge, but there’s one undeniable truth: uncertainty looms close by when it comes to navigating the complex grounds of career choices, financial matters, and more. 

It is vital that we find a way to incorporate cooking, career, shop classes, financial literacy, computer science, and technology classes into the curriculum so that we can create a smoother entry for students who are entering into the real world after high school and college.

Here are the classes we should work to have in more high schools and colleges. 

Career and Life Skills:

We need to include courses that will prepare students for job searching, resume building, interview skills, time management, and stress management. If we work more to include these in our curriculum, students will be able to transition into the workforce seamlessly.

There are students at La Salle who do already have a job, but there are still students who are in the dark about employment. It would be valuable to help guide the students who still feel confused because having a job is very crucial for the outcome of one’s life beyond school.

Adding a curriculum around this idea could also clear the air on how taxes work and shed some light on how to file taxes and so on, since so many students are left feeling unaware of this important thing that we need to deal with as adults.

Cooking:

High schoolers tend to not have a strong idea on what food to cook or how to maintain a healthy diet, so it’s essential that we work to fix this issue. Sorry to break it to everyone, but we can’t just eat Chipotle and fast food for the entirety of our adult lives or in college.

Today it’s not just students, but it’s also parents who are influencing this action of getting fast food instead of making their own fresh food. Even though some parents have realized that fast food is unhealthy, 72% of parents still get it for their families due to time crunch and 84% of parents believe that it’s okay in moderation. 

This can’t be what we teach our next coming generation of adults; we need to offer courses that will teach students how to cook healthy and nutritious meals and help them create meal plans so they’re not scrambling at the last minute for what they’re going to eat.

This will also help students with managing their spending because, as most students already know, eating out or relying on fast food can be expensive in the long run. If schools work to add cooking to the curriculum, it will help them learn not only how to save money, but also how to create budget-friendly meal plans. 

Financial Literacy:

A strong understanding of personal finance — including budgeting, investing, and managing debt — is vital for financial stability and independence. If we add this to school’s curriculum it will allow for students to practice skills that they’ll use throughout the rest of their lives. It will lead them to make informed decisions, manage money effectively, and plan for the future.

Another big thing for high schoolers to understand as they move into college is debt management. Many students will be faced with student loans and consumer debt, so they’ll need to learn how to manage that debt responsibly and not fall into a financial trap.

It’s also an essential course to include because it will promote students’ consumer awareness so they’ll be able to understand concepts like interest rates, credit scores, and the consequences of financial decisions. 

Computer Science and Technology:

As technology continues to play a bigger part in our lives and workplaces, it is essential that students learn more about computer science and technology. It will surround them in all different aspects of their lives, so students must conquer this understanding earlier in life as opposed to shoving it in the corner.

In society, digital literacy is important due to its use with communication and accessing information. 

Adding in a class based on digital literacy will allow students to learn skills that they’ll need to live, learn, and work in a society where communication and access to information as digital technology continues to advance. 

AI is a prime example of the importance of advancing our technology understanding because it’s a growing tool that will enable people in society to rethink how we integrate information, analyze data, and use the resulting insights to improve decision making. 

When it comes to employment, it is critical that you have a clear understanding of technology because it will be expected that you have a basic knowledge of it. Industries are also continuing to advance the types of technology implemented within their workplace, making learning this information even more imperative.

Looking at the bigger picture, if we include this computer science and technology class in schools more, it will advance students in entrepreneurship. As time has shown, many successful startups and businesses today are tech-based. By highlighting this, we can grow students’ understanding of how technology can lead them to more than just a few likes.

Will these classes be easy to add into the school curriculum? The short answer is no, but the benefits will be worth the effort. This has been wanted by our community for some time with ideas of additions to the curriculum in “We Are Not Ready for Adulthood — That’s Why we need Home-Ec.”

If we work to add these courses into the curriculum, it won’t just lead to an education enhancement — it will also help ensure that students will enter into the “real world” not feeling uncertain, but instead empowered, informed, and ready to face the challenges of life beyond school.

If we do this, it will ensure future success, well being, and growth in society as a whole.

The time for change is right now and it all begins with our schools.