By: Allison Jia
Everyday when I come to school, I know I can expect to feel the constant cycle and burden of my classes. I walk through the revolving doors of math, English, history, foreign language, science, computer science, and business only to walk through them again the next day. While I am truly blessed and privileged to be able to even go to a school and receive education, I cannot help but wonder at the point of taking all these different classes. Will these classes really help prepare me for the future? When will be the next time I need to calculate the lattice energy of diatomic fluorine using the Born-Haber cycle? When will be the next time I need to memorize a perfect translation of the Aeneid Book 2? When is the next time I will be asked to recall all six of Henry VII’s wives? The answer to the questions I desperately will need in the future lay not in the deep corners of academia, but rather in simple lifelong skills I truly need. What should I do when tax season comes? How do I apply for mortgage? In even simpler situations, how do I operate the washing machine or the dishwasher? Many kids nowadays do not even know how to do the simplest of chores. In the olden days, schools often mandated home economics classes to learn these basic skills, yet home ec lost its spark with the rise of the much more “difficult” AP classes put in place to earn favor with colleges. However, the benefits of the more ‘intellectual’ classes cannot be ignored; many students are catapulted into their career from the knowledge they gained in school.
The balance of academia and lifelong skills is a hard one to maintain. While chasing after dreams of a successful life, always remember that there is another side to the story: keep in mind the basic skills to maintain that successful life.
