Picture this: you are sitting in class, staring blankly at a wall, barely catching anything the teacher says. Each minute in the class feels like an hour, and each sentence that comes out of the teacher’s mouth feels increasingly distant. You snap back for a brief moment, and the teacher is still droning on about the same confusing topic your mind decided was not worth its time 20 minutes ago. Maybe it is a complex chemistry formula you couldn’t care less about, or a string of calculator commands to find the solution to a problem nobody would actually need solving in real life, or a meaningless treaty signed decades ago by names that mean nothing to you. You twiddle your pencil in your hand and think to yourself: When am I going to use any of this in the real world?
If the image painted above seems at all familiar, you probably are not alone. According to a study done in 2017 by the nonprofit YouthTruth (youthtruth.org), only 46% of high schoolers think that what they learn in school is relevant to real life, and those numbers have inevitably gone down even further with time due to more modern criticisms of college and new job opportunities that do not require as much knowledge learned in school. And, according to many studies, why should they? A survey done by H&R Block (hrblock.com) found that the average American only uses 37% of the information learned in school after they graduation, and the overwhelming majority of those polled said they would have rather taken classes on skills more focused on in life, such as tax preparation and household repairs, than the calculus and algebra classes they were forced to take.
However, there is another side to the argument. Many believe that, while a lot of topics taught in school may not be directly applied outside of school, the core principles they teach are. According to the MathematicsHub website (mathematicshub.edu), although math may seem abstract in the classroom, it helps people make decisions, predict outcomes, and develop critical thinking skills. Science helps students understand the world around them and how different things work and interact, even if some sciences, such as chemistry, are more abstract than others. World history is important to have at the very least a general grasp on, since there are so many allusions to events in media and politics. English is arguably the most important and directly applicable subject in everyday life for writing and reading. Joseph Wolk, a junior, said, “I see myself using most of what I’ve learned in high school. For me, it just comes down to what’s important in the moment; English grammar skills, history, and even foreign language all come into play somewhere in our lives. Even science comes in to play sometimes.”
Whether the current school system in America prepares students for the real world is a topic that is often scrutinized. While some take the fact that most of what they learned in school is not directly used much in life to say that school is not as important as many say, others argue that the more important takeaway from school is the core skills learned from the classes. This debate has sparked the introduction of more finance-based classes.
Nick Lanteri, a sophomore, said, “The class that would help kids the most [if implemented] would be any sort of personal finance class because a valuable life skill is knowing how to invest, pay taxes, and avoid debt.” Such classes teach students about business, financial advice, and more. Teresa Gerbi, a sophomore, said, “The only classes I find myself using in real life are the business classes like accounting and business law.” These classes are electives, however, meaning they are optional and many students who would benefit from them may never end up taking them. While the existing education structure may never incorporate many more classes on life skills, these new electives are a good step toward ensuring that the next generation learns in school what they can directly apply in the real world.
