The real world

By Julianna Bonnett

For students entering the real world after high school, it can either be a positive or negative experience.

According to a recent unscientific survey done on Survey Monkey, 66 per cent of people polled said high school prepared them for post-secondary education but did not prepare them for dealing with financial issues.

Kathleen Westlake, 51-year-old manager at Mad Science Canada, said her high school education was different then what it is now.

“When I was in high school, we took our driver education classes in school. Now they don’t provide that, which makes it less likely for teenagers to get their license at the right age,” said Westlake.

Westlake said the education system should be changed in multiple ways.

“They need to start teaching children about more important subjects. Math, English and history are all valuable subjects but they should provide a class that teaches students how to deal with financial issues and world issues. Students should learn about world issues and how it affects us,” said Westlake.

The survey also asked which subjects were most useful to take. About 74 per cent agreed English was the most useful subject, while civics and careers were voted the least useful subjects with 50 per cent agreeing.

Daniel Fahad, a 21-year-old welder at Essex Weld, said they should teach students how to do taxes.

“They need to teach students to stand on their own financially in the real world. I’ve never used pi or had to know where the nucleus is, but I could have used some help on filing taxes,” said Fahad.

Ninety-four per cent of individuals surveyed stated they continued their education after high school. Alyssa Barkhouse, a student at the University of Windsor studying international relations, said she thought high school was “tolerable.”

“People say high school didn’t prepare them for the amount of work and research required in post-secondary, which I do agree with to a certain extent. Once leaving high school I struggled to figure out how to pay bills, do taxes and to even write a proper cover letter on my own,” said Barkhouse.

“On the other hand, I find university education to be a lot more stressful than high school. The education system is incredibly wrong. Something needs to be fixed.”

According to the survey, 92 per cent of people believe taxes and how to make a bill payment should be taught in high school in order for students to have a brighter future.