Parent: Preparing for the game of life
Classes teaching real-life skills equip teens for
adulthood’s true challenges
By Kate Jonuska
You’ve graduated high school. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. Hold on … do you even know how to earn $200, or how to budget that $200 for rent, food and entertainment?
Despite all the quadratic equations, sentence diagrams and the periodic table of the elements that high school drills into the head of teenagers, are they truly prepared for the Game of Life, able to handle all the random “CHANCE” cards that could be thrown their way?
A teen who has taken advantage of any family- and consumer-science classes — electives teaching real-life skills to fill the scary gap between book learning and adult reality — may be ahead of the game.
“When you can get information that you can accumulate for your own experience and lifetime goals, why not get it?” asks Lori McManigal, the family- and consumer-science liaison for School District 11. “It’s the overwhelming feeling of helping improve lives.”
Food and Nutrition, Relationships, Child and Adolescent Development, Independent Living: These are just a few of the many classes that offer teenagers lessons usually learned in the school of hard knocks, such as how to buy a reliable used car, cultivate good credit, have a healthy relationship or find a meal without consulting a drive-thru window.
In other words, the class covers many of the pitfalls young adults face, helping them avoid mistakes — such as bankruptcy, divorce or obesity — they might otherwise spend years correcting.
“People are realizing some of these (family- and consumer-science) skills are necessary, but don’t really know how to fit it in yet … We’re so governed by the CSAPs and test scores and all that,” says Palmer High School teacher Sharon Nemeth. Of her Relationships class, she says, “By the end of the class, every kid will say this class should be required.”
CLICK HERE to read a PDF of this article, which published in the July 2008 Pikes Peak Parent magazine.
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