It’s about time to address the one concern that has been looming in the recesses of every student’s mind: stepping into the real world. The sheltered bubble so many Diamond Bar High School students seem to be indulging in won’t last forever.

In just a few years, or in a few months for some, every student on campus will need to know how to conduct  job searches, write resumes, complete applications and recognize employee rights, benefits and responsibilities among many other important lifelong skills. The future sounds intimidating enough, but here’s the kicker–many high school students are neither well-informed nor capable of carrying out these matters by graduation.

A surefire solution to this predicament would be to introduce a mandatory life-skills course to every high school in America. Students who would otherwise select another intensive academic course would then be forced to properly learn how to plan and manage their career.

Ideally, such classes would not only teach students how to prepare for their future, but they would also educate them on how to handle certain situations such as interviews and business meetings. The course should be similar to the segment on financial skills that some Economics classes already offer, but more in-depth, as student exposure to this subject is currently quite minimal.

The scope should also be expanded to include details on self employment, preparation for working environments, healthcare and insurance.  After all, most students will hardly have enough time to learn all this on their own once they head off to college with even more responsibilities and harder classes.

Although it is certainly impressive that so many students are taking college level courses,other skills such as investment, time management and financial skills–among many others–are crucial abilities every person needs in order to successfully navigate their life and should have just as much importance placed on them.

Some might think such a course is unnecessary, as students should be able to learn life skills at home from their parents, but there are many students who simply do not receive exposure to this skill set. Parents might not have enough spare time to properly teach their kids about financial skills and the like.  

Given the exceptionally diverse range of topics these life skills cover, it’s not likely for students to be fully exposed to them even if their parents attempted to teach them.

Just as health class is a prerequisite to attending college, a life-skills course should also be mandatory. Whether they decide to go to college or not, high schools need to better prepare young adults to adjust to life on their own.