Do you know how to calculate your taxes? Do you know how to finance a car? How about how to apply for a mortgage to buy your home? High school teaches a variety of important subjects including, English, World History, and Algebra; however, they exclude teaching other necessary topics such as basic financial management, understanding credit and student loans, as well as personal communication skills. High school teaches students how to pass a final exam rather than basic life skills; the curriculum should include both basic life skills in addition to the teaching of core classes.

Classes such as Lifetime Nutrition and Wellness and Child Development help with education of students in various fields of life necessities. Each class instructs students on the basics of cooking and dietary requirements and the importance of care taking and treatment for a child. Sophomore, Madeliene Bush, explains that Lifetime Nutrition and Wellness helps her learn the basics in cooking and argues that the class is maybe just as important as her core classes.

“Taking Nutrition helps me with the fundamentals of cooking as well as what a healthy and balanced meal looks like. I think the class is almost, if not equally, as important as core classes because it is teaching me skills that I will use for the entirety of my life; and while some classes such as Geometry are important, I won’t use those lessons in my day to day life,” Bush said.

Chemistry, Biology, and Human Geography are all essential classes. The classes are the introduction to various career options such as Nursing or a Cartographer. For sophomore Natalie Wyatt, the classes aid in her future career choices although, she can comprehend and grasp how her classmates feel towards the classes.

“I don’t really know what I would like to be, probably a career that involves a History, so classes like World History or World Geography assist me with that career option. However, I understand where some people think that the mandatory classes they take might not help. I feel the same way about my math classes because I don’t think I need to know how to solve a quadratic equation,” Wyatt said.

Decisions are extremely important, creating our future. And the skills we learn earlier in life during middle and high school shape those decisions. Sophomore Lexi Taggart feels that it is vital that students learn basic skills in their early years so that when they enter into their young adult years they feel confident in the choices they make.

“I think having a fundamental ability to comprehend and perform essential skills are important. I think schools do a great job of teaching me lessons that I need to know in order to pass a final, but they don’t do as great of a job when it comes to teaching these skills. The curriculum should include these basics at a younger age so when I’m in college and an adult, I am confident about my choices,” Taggart said.

While it is necessary that students learn basic core classes, it’s also vital that students learn life management skills to further increase their rate of success in life.