It is the common opinion that attending school and getting an education will prepare the average student for the real world and the situations they may encounter, but do students learn necessary life skills that will help them in the future?

Chances are, the average person will need to know how to put air in his flat tire more than he will need to know how to graph a polynomial function. So are educators today really succeeding in educating and preparing students for everyday life?

A survey taken by a group of VHS seniors revealed that only 50 percent of students said that they could walk into a job interview for a high-ranking position and feel that they would be prepared to present themselves in a proper manner, ensuring their success during the course of the interview.

Perhaps even more startling is the answer to the question of whether or not the students said they would know how to go about taking out a loan to fund their college education, something that is in the near future and is becoming a reality for many VHS seniors. One hundred percent of the seniors responded that they did not know how to take out a student loan.

So then the next question is, ‘Are schools failing to teach students vital life skills?’

A proposed solution to this pressing issue would be a mandatory course for all seniors that tackle and educate students on basic everyday life skills.

Topics that could be covered in such a class include how to pay bills/do taxes, basic self-defense, the basics of how to sew, and even proper ways to be in a healthy relationship.

“I understand that we have to learn basic concepts of math and physics and things like that, but when I’m in the real world living on my own, I would much rather be knowledgeable about paying a down payment on my mortgage than I would knowing how to solve the quadratic formula,” confesses VHS senior Caitlin Barnes.

While the basic high school curriculum is necessary to one’s education and future, there are many vital life skills and lessons that are not being taught to the younger generation of students. So are schools failing to prepare their students and depriving them of basic knowledge of everyday encounters and skills needed in the real world?