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Liam McKay

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp Pd. 4

20 November 2020

Do Schools Properly Prepare Students for the Real World?

Think deeply about your high school classes that you currently enrolled in. Or that you

took while you attended school. Do you find yourself thinking “When will I ever use this in my

life?” or “I haven’t used this since that class, that has never benefited me”. Well, you are not

alone, most people have the same feelings towards school subjects as you do. A large majority of

students and parents believe that schools do not properly prepare students for the real world and

life after high school. This failure of responsibility to prepare students for life by schools has

become a major topic for many around America. Some will argue however, that schools do inject

their students full of knowledge. While schools do teach students knowledge, they leave out

important life preparations’, such as wisdom, adult responsibilities, and basic life skills.

Schools may fill you full of knowledge, but life itself requires wisdom. Studies have

found that the way students are taught has led them to be less independent later in their lives.

Schools focus so much on standardized testing and having students memorize things that they

tend to leave lessons out that can teach life skills that will benefit them beyond graduation

(Opinion). Some schools and researchers have found that a specific type of learning, known as

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) requirements for life skills, can be much more

impactful to students (Toe et al). This style of teaching places students in classes where the

responsibilities of adulthood can be learned, such as math classes that integrate lessons that teach
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students all about banking and how interest works. This is the wisdom that students are missing

out on in school.

Next, as students go through school, they are filled with loads of responsibilities and

problems that are followed with confusion. Schools spend large amounts of time teaching

student’s information. But these lessons often do not include basic adult responsibilities, which

must receive more focus. Many students graduate and never learned to manage money; this issue

is an essential part of life that is overlooked by schools. In an article by Hannah Young, she

states “As kids leave high school to start a new chapter in their life, many do not know the basic

skills that are vital to adulthood. Some kids do not know how to pay taxes, get a job, write a

resume or pay bills.” Every skill and responsibility Young said is the most important part of

adulthood. Some may argue that these skills are up to parents to teach, however this event may

not always be possible. Some student’s parents may not have time, be well-enough suited to

teach them, or even be able to get fully in touch with their kids. This issue could be because of

weak parent child relationships, parents having a busy schedule, or several other reasons. Thus,

schools should integrate these responsibilities into their curriculum.

Lastly, not only do schools fail to teach students basic adult responsibilities, but they also

miss out on teaching student’s basic life skills. One severe example of this is social and

communication skills. Most students graduate and are never taught skills like this and how to

approach situations. There are tons of examples that coincide with this topic as well. Skills such

as leadership have never been taught. One may argue that you cannot teach leadership that it is a

self-taught trait, which is a valid argument. However, to be true, you can say that schools can

teach students what a great leader does and how much of an impact good leadership can add to a
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job resume. I have also gathered from firsthand experience skills that get missed in school. These

skills include things such as how to change a tire if you get a flat, sew on a button, and manage

time. All these skills may not be essential skills, but most students will have these problems once

or multiple times throughout their lives (Guise).

To conclude, most schools I believe do not provide students enough skills and

preparation for the real world. I believe schools play a quintessential part in students’ lives and

should be responsible for the teaching the wisdom of adult responsibilities and life skills. Many

will argue that schools offer courses such as this, or even that it would be hard for teaches to fit

these skills into their curriculum. This fact is a valid point, however an alternative to this could

be having a “Life Skills and Responsibilities” course students could take instead of study halls or

the opposite of their gym classes in the week. One excellent example of a course such as this is

shown by writer Annabelle Toe in an article she wrote. She said, “Some of these TEKS would

include learning about taxes, mortgages, insurance loans, voting, sexual health, resumes, job

interviews, cooking, and mechanics” as forementioned. This change would provide schools with

an easy alternative and the ability to prepare students for life after graduation. Students then

would be able to be less dependent and more independent and responsible. Overall, while

schools do teach students knowledge, they leave out important life preparations, such as wisdom,

adult responsibilities, and basic life skills that are essential to students' lives.
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Works Cited

Chen, Grace. "Are Public School Students Prepared for the 'Real World?'" Public School Review,

30 Apr. 2018, www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/are-public-school-students-prepared-

for-the-real-world. Accessed 23 Oct. 2020.

Guise, Steven. "How School Trains Us to Fail in the Real World." Steven Guise,

stephenguise.com/how-school-trains-us-to-fail-in-the-real-world/. Accessed 23 Oct.

2020.

"Opinion Opinion: High School Should Be Reaching Life Skills." Fenton in Print, 17 Dec. 2018,

fentoninprint.com/17064/opinion/high-school-should-be-teaching-life-skills/. Accessed

23 Oct. 2020.

Toe, Annabelle, et al. "Teenagers Need to Learn Life Skills in High School, Because Many

Aren't Learning at Home." The Dallas Morning News [Dallas, TX],

www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/05/17/teenagers-need-to-learn-life-

skills-in-high-school-because-many-aren-t-learning-at-home/. Accessed 17 May 2019.