Download Collin Fleischer High school education High school students are

Collin Fleischer
High school education
High school students are expected to have the basic understanding of the core subjects
(math, science, history, and English). These subjects are very important when it comes to college
and being able to use these skills to do well on the SAT, which is one of the main tests that
colleges look for students to do well on. While all this is important, are high school classes really
preparing students for the real world? There are surveys conducted that show that majority of
high school students lack the skills of financial management and how to fill out a checkbook.
Recent research suggests that these skills are necessary for life and the most important for
students to learn.
“In U.S News ‘High School Students Need to Think, Not Memorize,’ it argues that many
high school students succeed by memorizing facts instead of learning the actual curriculum.”
They say the problem with this is that teachers are instructed to teach to a test and make sure the
students get a certain score on the test. This research is meant to show that a student can get
through high school without learning what all the need to know. They believe a good alternative
to better the learning for students is for them to participate in “application learning” which is
more of a hands on type of learning. Application learning is a school partnering up with a
business and teaching the students the skills necessary to work for that particular business. It is
believed to be a more effective way of learning because most of the students actually want to
learn these skills and there is no way to just memorize fact because you actually have to
understand the concepts of what you are doing to be successful. This is another way of learning
that seems to be effective for students and is used a lot by students that choose not to go to
college or find interest in a particular business.
It has been brought up to the school board to have more classes that involve financial
skills and decision making. The school board will often say it is not their responsibility to teach
students these skills and they have to focus on the core subjects. People argue that students spend
years developing the understanding of these core subjects than they will go to college and major
in something where 2 or 3 of these core subjects are completely irrelevant to what they are
studying. There are a lot of arguments saying that skills like financial management and critical
thinking are tools you can use no matter what you decide to do in life. A big argument with the
school board is that these skills will benefit every student and many students would show interest
because it is something that is relevant to life.
While there are a lot of people that believe that schools should be responsible for
teaching skills financial management and decision making. There are also a lot of people that
believe that parents should be responsible for teaching their children these skills. Some say that
schools are responsible for giving students the information necessary for them to succeed at the
next level of education. Others think that parents are using these life skills every day and could
easily show their children these life skills. Everyone agrees that the whole purpose of school is to
give children the intelligence needed to pursue a career or go to college. Many of the people
involved in education program say that it is not a daycare where they are expected to show
everyone how to do every skill there is. They would also believe that majority of the time most
parents do not remember the subjects being taught in high school so they cannot always help
their children with school anyway.
The curriculum taught in high school is said by some to not necessarily be beneficial to
students. Many people argue that it is relatively easy to make it through high school by
memorizing facts and graduating without really having a great understanding of what you
learned for four years. The big argument is if high school really teaches students all the skills
needed for life. At the end of the day high schools are receiving all this criticism about their
curriculum and if it really even helps children in the long run. Many high schools believe that it
is not their fault if the students memorize facts to get by and it is not their responsibility to teach
every skill. It will be interesting to see in the future if high schools change their curriculum more
to business type classes and start making high school more critical thinking or if they keep it the
same.
Annotated bibliography
"Why Teach Money and Personal Finance." Teaching Money Skills, Practical Life Skills, Ideas,
Activities, Resources, Lessons, Themes. Money Instructor, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
This source talks about how high schools do not do a good job teaching children the skills
of life. They teach them study skills and basically how to memorize facts to get by on tests. They
need to be focusing more on skills they actually use in life like financial skills. Every student
should be taught how to properly right checks and fill out a check book. Children are taught how
to do well in school, but they are not prepared on how to do well in life. Depending on what they
want to do in life the topics they are learning about high school is pretty much irrelevant for life
skills, but if they were taught about financial finance that is something that someone could
actually benefit from. The curriculum also needs to provide problems that are life related and
give the children a situation that could actually occur in life. High school is all about memorizing
facts to get by on tests, which is showing no one anything because they should be learning about
skills that is going to prepare them for the real world. Teaching children this would also help
children be more successful in life because a lot of kids could care less what they are learning
about, but if you give them some real life scenarios they might actually pay attention and care
what they learning about. This article is not completely credible because it does not give every
reader beneficial information instead voices the writers own opinion.
"High School Students Need to Think, Not Memorize." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 17
Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
This article first talks about how they conducted a survey and the survey was a test for
high school students. They used this test to see how much the students knew about writing a
check book, savings, and good financial decisions. The students have consistently failed this
survey and have not really shown much improvement. It states that in most high schools the
teachers are teaching the subjects needed to succeed in college. Most kids want to go to college
out of high school so they should not waste time teaching those skills in high school. Instead of
teachers being held responsible for children not having this common knowledge, many people
blame the parents. It talks about how parents should be held responsible for making sure their
children learn this common knowledge. The article also talks about how in city schools where
the students sometimes do not have the same lives of others. Many of the children from the city
are schools are going straight to work out of high school and they will have to be a provider for
their family. The article talks about how they inner city high school curriculum is a little
different because many of those students do not need to learn material to prepare them for
college, instead they will need to learn skills to help them for the real world right away. This
article show credibility by being an article by the U.S news and is a world report.
Hinton, Richard. "Preparing Students for Life: The School-to-Work Reform Movement."
Preparing Students for Life: The School-to-Work Reform Movement. Jennifer Donaldson,
25 Feb. 1999. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
This article is talking about “application learning” which is more of a hands on type of learning.
Application learning is a school partnering with a business and teaching the students what they
need to know if they were to work for that business. This is used for students that either could
not get into college or if they are not sure what they want to major in. This type of schooling is
used to give the students actual experience with businesses and they can find out if they are
interested in them. If they are interested in them, then if they do well they could use this to get a
job. Businesses partner up with these type of schools because they believe that the students are
learning real skills that can make an immediate impact on their company. Unlike hiring someone
right out of college that might have a higher education level, but the business is still going to
need to train them on how the business works. It is also good because it provides people that
could not grasp the subjects taught in school a chance to get a job and learn useful skills. This
article seems credible as well due to the author explaining they are summarizing what a former
president said. It also does a good job fully explaining the principle of application learning.
"Should High Schools Require Money Management Classes?" Consumerism Commentary RSS.
Luke Landes, 12 Apr. 2007. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
This article is talking how so many students make it through high school by just memorizing the
material instead of actually learning it. Due to research on students and how majority of students
would memorize the facts to pass a test then completely dump everything and go on to the next
topic. They are now trying to change the education system by making it so the students actually
have to learn the material and show that they have an understanding of what they are doing. They
are doing this by changing the way to teach the material. They are giving the students problems
that have to do with real life situations so that the students show more interest in actually
learning the concepts. This way it gives the students a reason to want to understand it and make
it easier to comprehend. They also are using a lot more short answer questions and not as much
multiple choice because they want the student to be able to provide a basic understanding of a
topic instead of just memorizing a term. If you can answer a short answer question correctly then
there is a better chance that you will retain the information and not just forget it. This article
seemed credible as well because it talks about bettering the education system all around and is
not trying to debate any sketchy topics.
Williams, Mari-Jane. "Life Skills All Teens Should Have Before graduating from High School."
Washington Post. The Washington Post, 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
This article is talking about how high school may give you the knowledge about math, reading,
and writing, but is that really preparing you for life. It talks about situations like if your car
breaks down would you know how to fix it or even skills needed to make important decisions.
These are skills that everyone at some point needs to know. People argue that your parents can
teach you this stuff, but what about children that their parents work all the time or if their parents
do not know these skills themselves. Children are in school for twelve years and it would not
take a lot to teach students these skills because many students would be very interested due to the
fact that it pertains to real life. It is also a lot of hands on learning, which is a lot easier way to
learn by many people. Putting the students into situations where they had to make life changing
situations and see how they handle it is an easy to teach them decision making. Learning these
skills would be very beneficial because everyone is going to need these kind of skills at some
time in their lives. Having these skills would also make these students better-rounded, which is
also beneficial when looking for a job or trying to get into college. This article does not seem
completely because it seems to pretty bias and does not give the positives and negatives on the
subject.