Should Students Have to Pass a Basic Skills Test to Graduate?
Currently, in order to graduate from Grandview High School, students must pass a senior exit interview- this consists of questions that prove the student has been involved in the community. It also verifies that this person is taking steps to reach future goals. But it seems to be centered almost completely on academics. Yes, this is school, the place for academics, but if we are preparing young adults for the future, then they should have universal skills beyond speaking as if they are intelligent human beings.
Kids can solve logarithmic equations, but they can’t crochet. We can write a rhetorical essay-for the most part-but we can’t cook a piece of chicken on the grill. We can identify different diseases by blood cell count, but we can’t balance a checkbook.
We do have home ec. classes that teach some cooking skills but most come out with the ramen noodle mentality. We also have a baby class, but the majority of students aren’t required to take the course. Those classes are a good start to helping to teach students skills for the real world.
We need to know more than things that apply only in the civilized world as well. I think we would find it surprising, the number of people who would be interested in taking a class of survival skills. Teaching simple skills like how to pitch a tent and how to purify water. In smaller schools, they teach hunter’s safety in sessions on campus. While we don’t have that many students who hunt, and some may think differently than me, I believe it is important to know how to work a gun. We should also be taught some defensive moves, which will come in handy when needed. In college, we will be living on our own. Perhaps it would be a good idea to know how to do laundry and cook, you know, to keep us alive. There are lots of people who lack these essential skills. It’s something to consider.
