Students attend school for over 13 years, yet some feel very unprepared for the real world. While academics are crucial to success, there are tons of other responsibilities/duties students will be faced with. For example, taxes, preparing their own meals, navigating from point A to point B, budgeting, and eventually establishing their household. The earlier students are taught these skills, the better prepared they are for the future. For this reason, I believe that schools should bring back driver’s education and home economics.

     Driving is a valuable skill to have. It gets you to where you need to be. However, lately not as many teens have been getting their licenses. One of the main reasons is because they are too busy with extracurricular activities such as jobs, after school clubs, or volunteering. By the time these students get home, they are swamped with hours of homework. However, if driver’s education was offered in all schools, many more students would be able to get their driver’s licenses. Getting your license at a young age has plenty of benefits: teens gain more experience, are prepared for their road test and gain necessary confidence. Furthermore, some insurance companies will give students a discount if they’ve taken driver’s ed. Enforcing a driver’s ed curriculum will help students become more self-sufficient in the future. 

     Additionally, students are expected to know how to properly care for themselves via meal prep, budgeting finances and establishing their overall household on their own. Since students aren’t taught these skills in school, they often go into the real world struggling. They will most likely be forced to learn by trial or error and waste money along the way. However, if students were taught these skills from an early age, they would have an easier transition into adulthood. Let’s say a student took home economics freshman or sophomore year and continued to work on these skills outside of school. By the time that student is an adult, they’ll be fully prepared to tackle the real world in this aspect. Even if a student took a home economics course and didn’t work on these skills outside of school, they would still have a head start. Not only would it help students become more productive citizens of society, but it would also help them be better prepared for their future.

      In conclusion, school curriculums could be improved and better serve students by offering real-life learning opportunities such as driver’s education and home economics to name a few. There should be more focus on preparing students for the real world, not just providing the tools for a strong academic career.