Dear Future President,

School teaches us basic facts like two plus two equals four, and that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but does our current curriculum prepare us for real-life situations? More high school students know the periodic table than how to balance a checkbook. What schools need are more classes that involve government, economics, and skills for life after high school. Not every teenager is privileged enough to go to college, and often times they need to get a job right after high school in order to support themselves, but how can someone support himself without the basics of life?

Certain schools accommodate this notion and offer similar classes to those previously mentioned, but it is not mandatory, and not all schools promote these types of classes. Most schools provide classes that limits a student’s true potential because students put aside their curiosity, go through the motions, and pick a career path that will lead to a well-paying job. Students then have little to no passion for their work; this is also due to the dearth of awareness to classes that offer entrepreneurship, personal finance, etc. If students get burned out by the classes they are enrolled in and decide to change majors, they have wasted precious time and money. Student debt is already an issue that forces people into jobs that they despise, and sometimes do not even relate to the kind of career they laboriously spent years learning, just so that they can pay off their enormous debt.

Life essentials like time management, how to manage money while still rewarding oneself, and how to act in social situations are not taught in schools. Instead, students are given worksheets with answers that they can Google in under a minute. This does not necessarily seem to be a problem since the content being learned is rarely retained and since after a test, the information is commonly, quickly forgotten. Classes need to inform students on topics that are engaging, while simultaneously beneficial for reality. Wouldn’t someone rather start a business that they are passionate about and become exceedingly profitable rather than earning a college degree but having to work a mediocre job to barely afford utilities and rent? As the leader of this country, making a change by altering what students learn in school so that they are prepared and ready to face reality after high school is a necessity.

Sincerely,

Clio Florenca