Real Life Lessons
Most things students learn in school these days are helpful but a lot of them will never be used in their future. Ever.
In school we learn about World War I and how Romeo and Juliet committed suicide. Which is good and all but only if you’re interested in it. Things like this shouldn’t be a requirement, or at least be a part of your final grade, if they won’t help you survive outside of school.
Once you graduate and you’re thrown out into the real world with rent that needs to be paid and kids that need to be fed, knowing the area of a circle isn’t much help. What we learn in school should be preparing us for reality and our careers, not next week’s test.
Some actual useful things we need to be taught but aren’t, are how to do taxes, how to write a resume, how to vote, or balance a checkbook.
I’m not just saying this because I want less, easier work in school because I’m lazy. It’s quite the opposite. I want to actually learn more in school but about things that interest me and that will help me outside of school. The great place of learning where young minds are shaped and formed into knowledgeable adults.
High school is the stepping stone for preparing students for their future in college and soon their career but the actual usefulness of the knowledge learned is questionable.
There are three solutions to this problem and when executed correctly together they can better the learning of this country’s next generation.
Career Classes
During your middle school life you aren’t really concerned about your future and what you want to do as a career changes just about every week.
High school is the time where you are suppose to be figuring your life out so you can plan the proper college to go to that specializes in what you want to learn.
There are too many seniors, as well as freshman in college, that still don’t know what they want to do with their lives. It’s these people that end up wasting money and settling for a desk job in a cubical hating their lives.
At the end of your 8th grade year you should have to take a test that shows your strengths and weaknesses and what your best career options are. Then you are put into classes that revolve around that with people you can relate with who understand your interests.
This will make students want to learn and come to school because they are learning about something they care about. Everyone has a purpose but when they are beaten down in classes that are harder for them they feel stupid which leads to them dropping out of school.
The 3 Types of Learning
Not all students learn the same way so why are we taught the same way? According to World Wide Learn, there are 3 types of learners: listening learners, seeing learners, and touch/experience learners.
On World Wide Learn website it explained what this means with an example that the stove can burn you.
“Listening learners heard their mother, believed the information, and never touched a stove. Seeing learners watched their brother touch the stove, and never touched it. Experience learners touched the stove; but only once!”
Like what I said with the career test, another test should be given to see how the student learn either by listening, seeing, or experiencing then are taught in that way. This would allow students to learn easier in the way they learn best.
These changes provide students to not be afraid once they graduate. To give them some direction as to how they would succeed and skills to survive on their own. To learn what they want to learn in the way that they learn best.
Students would enjoy coming to school and would strive to graduate. Not only would the dropout rate significantly decrease but the successes in students and jobs of their generation would exceed.
