Every time I think about my future, I cringe. I have no clue how I’m going to survive in the real world. To counteract this horrifying realization, I signed up for the Adult Living class. This is taught by Alison Hoskins and is probably the most useful class we offer here. This class should be required because otherwise, we are slightly screwed for becoming adults.

The problem is, nobody realizes that we offer this class. It is classified as FCS, so those not interested in that area of school, this class is unheard of. One of the main complaints I hear about school is “they don’t teach us how to file taxes!” or something along those lines. Well hello! We actually have a class to teach us these things! It is seriously made so that we can learn to be adults.

“The students that take that class with me really help choose the class on their own,” Hoskins said. “For the first few days of class we go around and I write down everything that everyone really wants to know and feel unprepared for and then off we go and I do my best to hit all the different things. It’s always different and that’s kind of the cool thing about this class.” This class teaches everything you’ve ever wanted to know about adult life. Everything from decent cooking in a microwave to self defense to buying a new car, it’s covered.

I interviewed Hoskins for my feature story a while ago about unusual classes that we offer. Before that story, I had no idea that we offered this class. Right after I interviewed her, I went to guidance and switched around my schedule for next year to fit Adult Living in. My mom was really excited about it.

I believe that Adult Living should be required because we will need to use all the stuff we learn in there later in life. “This is probably one of the only classes in the high school that I can guarantee you that every single thing that we talk about, you will use again,” Hoskins said. “Period.”

What gets me is that we have to have three math credits to graduate, but no life skills. Unless you become a math teacher or some crazy mathematician, you don’t need to know how to verify trig functions. You do need to know how to buy a house or file taxes. So why are we required to beat our heads against the desk in attempt to learn how to solve for imaginary numbers (THEY DON’T EXIST WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT THEM) and not creating a budget?

“I do think it should be required because a lot of kids don’t know what they’re getting into when they get out of high school,” junior CJ Marx said. “It’s a lot different.” Marx feels like even though the class might not be easy, it should be experienced. “It’s like a reality check. Life isn’t easy. Teachers don’t hand you things. You don’t get an A on everything you do.” Marx is currently a student in Adult Living and is now working on the final project. The final is a collection of information like your doctor’s contact, your budget, and what salary you need to live up to your standards. Not many people really know their doctor’s information, normally people just have their mom schedule their appointments.  This class is made to make students think and prepare for whatever comes after high school.

School doesn’t really prepare us for life. “School is not like life in the way that school is very structured,” Hoskins said. “Once you’re done with school, that is not how life is. We expect you to define what’s successful in life.” We sit here waiting for the bell to ring so we can go learn some French or chemistry but in the real world, nobody tells you what to do. I’ve heard stories of people who finally move out of their parents house and they stay up all night playing video games or eat cake for dinner because nobody tells them not to. Obviously we aren’t ready for responsibility, especially because our generation is one of the laziest I’ve ever seen. But we’ll save that for a different opinion piece.

We need to make Adult Living a required course, or at least convince people to sign up for it. Like I said earlier, I used this class in a story about unusual classes. It shouldn’t be that way. Let’s all team up and learn how to live by signing up for Adult Living.