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