High School Education Preparing for Adulthood

throughout my years in school up to this

point my favorite subjects have always

been the classes that teach either

different forms of art or history

both classes whose curriculum i will use

later my least favorite being math where

i found myself thinking

when will we use this in the future now

i’m not talking about adding subtracting

learning about percentages etc i’m

talking about the things that almost

no adult remembers for example in math

when we learn the quadratic formula or

the pythagorean theorem

or maybe when we learn chemical formulas

or must remember the periodic table of

elements in chemistry

basic jobs don’t require us to use this

which leads to a loss of

information this means that what we’re

learning isn’t applied in future

situations

which raises the question why aren’t we

learning the things that are essential

in preparing us for our life in

adulthood

maybe that isn’t the goal of education

to figure out what the goal

is we can look into the mission

statements of schools

schools across the nation include things

in their mission statements such as

wanting to inspire students for lifelong

learning

helping them reach their fullest

potential and gaining the knowledge and

creativity to help them succeed in the

world

yet standardized testing leads to

schools simply teaching us to pass the

end of year exams that

claim to evaluate our understanding on a

subject

how are we inspiring lifelong learning

if we’re just teaching what’s on the

test

at this moment for the state of florida

the high school graduation requirements

that relate to testing are as follows

we must pass the biology geometry us

and u.s history eocs

these are just to graduate and don’t

include the math science

and reading standardized tests we must

take each year

as we all know these tests are taken at

the end of our course

our classes are based off of standards

that are used as a guideline for student

learning

these standards are made for us to

follow so that if we master most of them

we will pass the end of your exams this

leads the focus to turn to passing the

test

and not to inspire lifelong learning

as an elaboration from the beginning of

the year students understand that the

final test

is the determining factor in what lets

us pass the grade

what impact does this have on students

simply the thought of such an important

test is a stressor added to students

shoulders

according to the national center for

biotechnology information

stress levels in university students

peak during the final exam period

not only are students excessively

stressed but since the teaching focuses

solely on testing abilities

they are also bored throughout their

classes so how can we expect great test

results

boredom in class goes hand in hand with

a lack of motivation

according to lori hugh from harvard when

speaking on information we learn in

school with professor david perkins

too often we tend to focus on short-term

successes

scoring well in a quiz acing a spelling

test

students especially today focus on these

small successes

getting through the year just acing

assignment by assignment

students simply wants to pass the class

whether that means learning and doing

the work

or easily using the technology at hand

to cheat

so why are students bored in their

classes

quite often i’ve heard teachers tell us

to practice what we learn in school at

home because if you don’t use it

you lose it that is exactly what’s

happening after students leave school

there’s no connection between some of

the things that we learn in school and

a student’s life they don’t see how it

could benefit them in the real world and

with a good reason this is exhibited

when students come back to school from

summer break

according to brookings institution when

stating findings on the summer learning

loss

on average students achievement scores

declined over summer vacation by

one month’s worth of school year

learning and the extent of loss was

larger at higher grade levels this is

important because

it shows that the only instance in which

we are using certain information

is in school higher grade level students

are maturing and beginning to learn

about adult responsibilities

and as we get older and start realizing

this lack of relevance

their disinterest starts increasing so

due to schools focusing student learning

on what’s going to be on the test

there’s a lack of relevance because they

aren’t teaching students to think

creatively

like they claim this leads to bored and

unenthusiastic students

getting through the year without

learning subjects that could better

prepare them for adulthood

at this point we understand that the

supposed goal of education

is taking the back seat to test

performance

what we need to know next is regardless

of purpose

whether or not the knowledge gained is

actually retained

and used in adulthood to find out

i created a microsoft form with 10

questions including things that adults

now should have learned in high school

i also added a few extra questions

asking if they guessed or did not

remember what i was asking

which question was the most difficult

what they had to figure out on their own

what they wish they learned in school

that could have better prepared them

and what year they graduated there were

25 people who completed the form

and they all graduated between 1984 and

here’s the breakdown of the questions

and the amount of people who got each

one right

the first question asks for the length

of a segment using the pythagorean

theorem

and eight percent or two people answered

correctly

question two asked what the charge of an

atom is typically

and 48 or 12 people

answered correctly for the third

question

i asked for the formula for density and

68

or 17 people chose the correct answer

question 4 asked participants to find

both zeros or solutions to the quadratic

equation provided

and no one knew what the answer was

the fifth question asked which of the

provided answers

the fifth question asked which of the

provided answers was the fourth stage of

mitosis and cell division

and twenty percent or five people

got this right question six

asked what was the ph of blood

and 88 percent or 22 people answered

correctly

the next question asked for the slope

intercept form formula

and 24 or six people

answered correctly question 8

asked how the periodic table of elements

was organized

and 68 or 17 people

chose the correct answer the ninth

question asked which

formula best represented photosynthesis

and

40 percent or 10 people chose the

correct formula

and finally the 10th academic question

provided information about two pairs of

parallel lines

gave the measurement for one angle and

asked for the measurement of a second

angle

based off the information i provided

44 or 11 people answered this correctly

the six questions that followed asked

for thoughts

96 or 24 out of 25 people said they

guessed on some of the questions or did

not remember what i was asking

when i asked which questions this

applied to the most common questions

they named were all of the math

questions

and for science the most common was the

organization of the periodic table

the p the ph of blood and

the formula for density more people

guessed on the math questions over the

science ones and 32

said that they guessed on both when i

asked which was the most difficult

the pythagorean theorem quadratic

equation mitosis

slope intercept form photosynthesis and

angles questions all had the highest

number of votes

again with 32 saying that they were all

difficult to answer and finally

i asked what they had to learn on their

own and what they wish they learned in

school that could have better prepared

them for their life in adulthood

almost every person answered something

about financial literacy

retirement or insurance these include

credit

bills managing money budgeting investing

banking taxes interest life insurance

and individual retirement plans

these are the things that we should be

learning in school instead of the

pythagorean theorem or the quadratic

equation

making it a requirement for every

student to learn financial literacy is a

huge step in the right direction

it creates better understanding and

preparation for our future as adults

citizens would be more productive for

themselves along with for their careers

students may leave high school knowing

how the periodic table is organized

but will struggle with understanding on

how credit works or how to pay their

taxes these are things that affect your

daily life

for example to buy a car your credit is

checked and depending on the score

they determine the amount of interest

you pay you could end up paying

a lot more for that car with the lower

score compared to someone with a higher

one

this number represents credit and it’s

determined by the financial decisions

you make throughout your adult life

credit isn’t only used to buy a car it’s

also used for buying houses

getting credit cards receiving student

loans etc

understanding all of this is essential

in being knowledgeable and productive

citizens

although florida includes financial

literacy within their economics course

the allocation of time is a single

quarter of a school year

further not every state requires it to

be taught at all

if we fully taught financial literacy in

schools

more people would have the wisdom to

start and maintain a business or would

be making more with the money management

skills they learned in school

imagine all the people that had great

business ideas but were too afraid to

jump into the vast pool of everything

financial

you would have to take classes on your

own which means spending

extra money on something that you could

have learned in school

according to champlain college those who

are financially illiterate are less

likely to have a checking account

rainy day emergency fund or retirement

plan or to own stocks

they are also more likely to use payday

loans pay only the minimum amount owed

on their credit cards

have high cost mortgages and have higher

debt and credit delinquency levels

this is also an effective way to reduce

the number of people

especially in ethnic and marginalized

communities who are financially

uneducated

when i asked what they learned on their

own

a participant in the form i created

mentioned that

they learned higher income families

place their children in better schools

so that they can essentially

learn all of these subjects all the

things that regular public schools could

be teaching us

with money management skills low-income

families would be able to have a higher

understanding on how to save

money which would help them in the long

run

to finish off the education system needs

reform

schools want us to go to college but

fail to realize that without these

classes

many will drown in student loan debt and

won’t know how to pay it off completely

because they’re financially illiterate

according to the marketplace.org

today roughly 70 percent of american

students end up taking out loans to go

to college

the average graduate leaves school with

around thirty thousand dollars in debt

and

all told some 45 million americans owe

1.6

trillion dollars in student loans and

counting

this number is even higher for others

based off of their career choice and it

shows that the education system is

hypocritical

they are teaching us to become good test

takers not independent and financially

stable adults

who are engaged by learning by teaching

us subjects that we can apply in the

future

they can hold students attention in

classes which leads to added motivation

and promotes lifelong learning

if someone wants to be a teacher

mathematician scientist engineer

they should learn these things when

they’re in their specific field of study

or

in higher education where students

select a major to gain specialized

skills and content knowledge

what is prioritized in schools ought to

be the tools and information to help

every student be successful in adulthood

millennials would be making much better

decisions with their money if they had

been

if they had been exposed to life skills

instead of

specialized math and science content

it is quite clear that when we enter

adulthood we won’t have the knowledge

necessary to make smart and informed

decisions

instead we will have a vague memory of

abstract mathematical and scientific

concepts

we won’t be able to recall them and

frankly we won’t be asked to

the time we have in school is both

scarce and urgently important

it could no it must be put to better use

thank you

you