Students are not prepared for the real world and high schools aren’t helping. Today’s students are unprepared and unequipped for many real world tasks because schools aren’t helping them. High school doesn’t prepare future generations to go to college, be financially stable, or get a job.

   One of the first steps you take in your journey to adulthood is college. The giant milestone most people have been working towards for years is our future society growing up and getting educated, and learning to be functioning members of our community. But how does school prepare you for this incredible future journey? It doesn’t. 

   Despite the ever-changing world around us, the same curriculum has been taught in schools since the 1800s with little to no updating, according to the Public School Review. While colleges have grown with the ages and adapted to modern societal needs, it seems like high schools are the last to catch up. As the world gets more competitive, schools still aren’t providing their students with what they need to stay in the game and get ahead. Colleges are looking for more than straight A’s, they are looking for future leaders and ambassadors of the world (publicschoolreview.com). 

   High schools on the other hand are focused on standardized tests that will soon be obsolete, even when applying for college. The curriculum, mostly based on memorization, is supposed to prepare you for a higher education, but how is that possible when those who fall behind are left behind, and different types of learning styles are not embraced or catered to. 

   DIY finance begins when you need to do your taxes for the first time, continues when you want to get a bank account and a credit card, and then there are college loans and it just keeps going. Most high school students know little to nothing about financial stability. High schoolers are clueless about what it takes to be financially stable, and classes that help with this aren’t a requirement, leaving most to figure it out themselves. The majority of the time, kids are forced to ask parents or friends about finances, who might not be the best resources. Schools don’t help eradicate this because they provide little to no support in this area.

   “Personal finance education should be a cumulative process, with age-appropriate topics taught each school year. The reality is that many states and school districts do not provide any substantive personal finance education until high school, if at all. The basics of personal financial planning — teaching young people about money, its value, how to save, invest and spend, and how not to waste it-should be taught in school as early as elementary school. But too many school districts teach personal finance for the first and only time in high school,” according to Champlain College (champlain.edu). There’s no reason more time should be spent teaching the quadratic formula than how to balance a checkbook or how to file taxes. The lack of financial knowledge will also become extremely harmful as one incredibly important financial decision is made at the end of high school: whether or not to go to college.

  Some high school students graduate and go straight into the workplace.  It’s no secret that, in today’s day in age, getting a job can be a difficult and competitive task. But even if they get a job, are these students prepared for the harsh reality of the real world so soon? A site about American educational progress stated, “From early grades, students are not prepared across a wide range of skills; students are not exposed to a rich set of career preparation activities; and school accountability systems are not oriented around successful career and civic outcomes” (americanprogress.org). Schools are not supplying students with the proper knowledge on how to be ready to get a job, let alone the skills to keep it. Some students are even unaware of what career path they want to follow for many years. The lack of guidance from schools leaves students struggling.

    It’s time to change our archaic curriculum to suit modern needs. Public schools need to prepare students to go to college, be financially stable, and get a job.