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As I make my way through my sophomore year of college, I have been no stranger to high stress levels. I often wish I could go back to high school and re-prepare myself for the responsibilities that would be thrown my way soon after graduation.
Tasks such as learning how to use a credit card or even trying to cook a quick meal are considered extremely simple; however, these are things that other students and I struggle with because we have never been provided with any knowledge or training when it comes to them.
The content we learn in school teaches us a lot about the careers we plan on building and our respective fields. However, if I was to put the content apart, I truly feel the education system and syllabi lack the importance of practical skills.
Having said that, every student uses different methods when it comes to learning something, acquiring both knowledge and skills at different paces. At the end of the day, the education system in high schools across the world acts as a one-size-fits-all, and this does not truly work for everyone.
The severity of this issue with schools barely teaching students practical skills along with both critical skills and content-based learning is something I noticed recently. Specifically, this stood out to me amongst my own friends as we worked our way through the semester trying to complete some of the most straightforward tasks. For instance, whether it was completing a task as simple as doing laundry or trying to pay a credit card bill, we struggled to learn how to do so without any support or prior knowledge.
To understand the gravity of the situation better, I decided to go ahead and ask other students around campus about their experiences when it comes to how high school prepared them for the world they were going to step into after graduation.
“While I wasn’t explicitly taught concepts like personal taxes or rent in textbooks, my school equipped me with critical thinking skills and the ability to effectively use resources like the internet,” IU sophomore Seerat Gill said. “This foundation enabled me to navigate and learn practical life skills independently when the need arose.”
Despite this, not all students feel the same way about the preparation they received from their respective high schools.
“No, high school does not adequately prepare students for the real world,” IU sophomore Dhruvika Pareta said. “While it focuses heavily on theoretical knowledge it often neglects essential life skills, and this lack of practical education became evident when I left for college and began living independently.”
Similarly, a study conducted by OnePoll in 2021 found that over 81% of college graduates wish that they were taught more life skills as it would have been of a lot more use to them in the long run.
Although high schools do their best to provide us with information as we pave the way for our professional careers, I feel that it doesn’t completely prepare us for the real world. For this reason, I feel changes need to be made to the education system where instead of more content-based classes being added to the curriculum, schools instead focus on providing students with a range of both critical and practical skills. This can be done by education systems adding a combination of content-based and practical skill classes to the curriculum with at least one class focusing on our personal development.
Ayzah Khan is a sophomore studying journalism and marketing.
