When students are prepared across a broad range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, they not only get better jobs, but they also engage more actively in school.  As the future of work becomes increasingly automated, skills like critical thinking, creativity, adaptability, and being able to apply knowledge in new contexts, are more important than ever yet high schools often fail to teach these skills.  High schools tend to teach the basics of Math, English, History, and Science.  More schools should teach Government, Economics, and Hands on classes.  If students were taught these topics, there would be a higher chance of them being more successful in the real world because they would have some knowledge on what to do.

After four years of high school, you are expected to act as an adult.  Independent 18-year-olds are supposed to know how to live on their own, are expected to pay rent, vote, write checks, manage money, and get a decent job.  As a student, I find myself constantly stressing about what happens after high school.  I worry about what college I will get into, what job I will get, how I will learn to support myself.  With a class like Economics where students learn how to handle real-life situations, I would be less worried about my life after high school.  Economics is thankfully a mandatory class at Lincoln High School, but there should be another mandatory class to prepare us for the “real world”.  It would cover everything young adults might need to know before they are thrown into the real world. Students become adults quickly, so the sooner we realize how important it is to educate teens about their future, the sooner young adults will be able to master these important life skills and be prepared for adulthood.