13 - Zack Rabold - "Necessary Knowledge"

High Schools are offering more and more electives as the years pass by. Automotive, American Sign Language, sculpture, etc. However, one class I don’t see much anymore is home economics. High school is supposed to be a stepping stone towards a life and career and yet there isn’t a class to teach us how to actually live those lives. Parents are left to teach their kids how to file taxes, cook, clean, take out loans, fix a sprinkler, or any other basic life skills. But let’s face it; not everyone has those parents. In fact it seems more and more common lately that parents teach their kids little to none of these skills. I think a home ec class should not only be an elective but a required course class nationwide. My idea would be that entering 9th grade each student would get a balance of say 1,000 “dollars”. As the year goes on the way to earn or lose money is based on your other grades, as if they were their own job. The class would collaborate with all the other classes to offer incentives and penalties just like jobs and such would in life. When a math class is teaching compound interest the home ec class could teach how to take out a loan. When history classes teach about the judicial system, Home Ec could give students jury duty. The class would be a full simulation to real life. Late to class, get a “ticket”. Get a 100% on a test, get a bonus. The class would be the last class of the day at every school and would be longer than the rest. Lessons would teach things like money management, family planning, retirement, how to cook, how to do laundry and more. It would teach a variance of skills from large to small that are used in everyday life. As they progress through high school each year is a new stage of life. From young adulthood in their freshman year all the way up past retirement in their senior year. Each high school would follow the exact same curriculum to ensure that if anyone transfers or moves they can keep their progress. I believe a fresh take on a home economics class would set up millions of students across the country to be successful and simply take the stairs instead of a cannonball into the real world. I’ve often felt that the American education system was so focused towards college and what they deemed “necessary knowledge” that it’s completely forgotten that everyone doesn’t have the same path. Some don’t go to college, or a trade, or sports, or anything else. But instead of having to figure out how to navigate life themselves and feeling pushed towards further education they are prepared for the common ground everyone will have to experience and decide what the right plan for them is after school. 485