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The Benefits of Life Skills in Schools

Jade Denman

Northwest Career and Technical Academy

English 12

Ms.Acosta

March 5, 2021
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Abstract

In this essay there will be a variety of points that lead as to why life skills should be

taught to students. At the start of a young age, kids are told that school is the most important

thing in their life and that school will teach them everything they need to know. Yet what some

fail to realize is that students graduate from school and still question themselves with certain

everyday tasks, due to the fact that their school failed to teach them. The main point throughout

the essay is to show how life skills should be taught towards all students so that they can have an

understanding of how the real world is. There are some that say that the schools teach them life

skills already but what they don't see is that the life skills they teach aren't the ones that are as

important towards students after graduation such as paying bills, house mortgage and insurance.

There are plenty of students that once they go off to college they don't know any of those skills

because the school was teaching them how to write out math equations. Therefore having the

chance for students to learn more about life after graduation through life skill classes will

improve their way of life.

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“You can’t always control the wind.. but you can control the sails.” - Jim Rohn. Life

tends to throw curve balls when least expected and it’s nice to know how to get out of the

situation. It is not always the turnout that parents and guardians can teach or show how things

should be done, so it should be taught in school to at least have everyone get the idea of solutions

to the problem. Although some may say that life skills should not be required in schools, life

skills should be required in elementary school all the way through high school because the

lessons learned help to prepare students for the future, teach them at a young age, and can be

beneficial for most life situations.

As students enter higher grades, they usually forget about everything they learned in

education before. To prevent this from happening, life skills should be taught that so that

everyone can take with them and remember forever. When people hear life skills, the first things

that come to mind can be changing a tire, working with money etc. Although those are

important, the term refers to much more. In a study by Carl Cullinane and Rebecca Montacute,

they defined essential life skills as the following, “confidence, social skills, self-control,

motivation, and resilience (Cullinane and Montacute 2017).” The most important part of these

skills is that they help to build children’s wider development. A skill is something that an

individual is able to do well. When people have the skills to not only do life things, but also to

build themselves up and create positivity, they tend to get farther and become stronger. In 2019,

a research came out that talked about the importance of life skills. This quote was written, “To

cope with the increasing pace and change of modern life, students need new life skills such as the

ability to deal with stress and frustration. Today’s students will have many new jobs over the

course of their lives, with associated pressures and the need for flexibility (Teachers Resources
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2019).” As the years go on, there are many more opportunities for individuals. The more life

skills they have, the more they qualify for the spot they are wanting to take.

From a young age, kids are told what life is but are not taught about it. They are just

taught things that are focused on education and don't expand beyond school and what it's like to

enter the real world. Beverly Przystas has an article that goes on about how children can learn

life skills in elementary school and can be prepared for the rest of their life. “Life skills taught at

an early age are beneficial for youth as they continue learning into their middle school and high

school years (Przystas 2013).” The younger the children are, the longer they have to work on

those skills and also learn new ones. It is okay if they forget how to do things or how things

should be done because they have the rest of their life to figure it all out for themselves and how

different skills work for them. With children at a young age, they do not need to learn the types

of skills that were listed before but they should be getting familiar with skills such as hygiene,

time management, and cleaning. In a VerywellFamily article, Duncan mentioned, “When kids

reach elementary school age they begin learning about the rewards of good decisions and the

consequences of bad decisions (Duncan 2020).” As younger children get older, more and more

skills are needed. When they learn younger, they are slowly developing skills that will not only

help them with where they are at the moment, but will be used later in life to help them with the

other skills they learn.

While there are many students who do not have the opportunity to learn about the skills

that they would need in any situation that comes up, there are multiple resources that they can

turn to in order to figure it out. This is a great example of why life skills should be taught so that

the knowledge is already there. An article written by Learning LiftOff included a quote from

Macmillan Education saying, “In a constantly changing environment, having life skills is an
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essential part of being able to meet the challenges of everyday life. The dramatic changes in

global economies over the past five years have been matched with the transformation in

technology and these are all impacting on education, the workplace, and in our home (Learning

LiftOff 2018).” Technology is ever changing and that is never going to stop but hard skills such

as changing a tire is never going to go away and finding out on the side of the road is something

no one wants to do. In life, there can be many problems that come up that may be hard to solve.

When students and others have the skills needed, life can be easier and flow smoother than trying

to figure it all out last minute. Alison Doyle explains life skills as the “abilities and behaviors

that help you deal effectively with the events and challenges of everyday life (Doyle 2019).” The

definition itself explains that they are not only helpful but needed in everyday life. There is

always going to be a time where skills can be useful. Skills have been taught in the past but they

have been nothing as impactful as life skills. There are not many teachings of money, self-worth,

or even conversation.

Many believe that the learning process of life skills should be done at home and not in

school. Lizzie Thompson quoted Anurag Prakash Ray on, “You can’t truly understand something

until it happens to you. The meaning of life is discovered in the experience (Thompson 2017).”

In other words, Ray is saying that in order to learn life skills and understand exactly how things

need to be done, there has to be a time when failure is the case. If it is just taught, there is no

experience on how it goes the wrong way. It is understandable why the oppositions believe this,

but an experience of failure that can lead to debt like crushing credit or unexpected medical bills

are reasons why things need to be taught.

To conclude, many things in life have skills required in order for them to be done the

right way. Many individuals do different things in life as they get older. Things like money and
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personality are skills that should be taught so that everyone can grow. It shouldn't have to be an

experience to be a lesson. Even though schools think that they are teaching students all things

that are essential, they are forgetting about the most important thing in their lives, which are life

skills. Take control of the future now!

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References

Beverly Przystas, M. S. (2018, October 02). Children learn life skills at an early age. Retrieved

from

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/children_learn_life_skills_at_an_early_age#:~:text=Life

skills taught at an,choices to name a few.

Doyle, A. (n.d.). Important Life Skills That Employers Value. Retrieved from

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/life-skills-list-and-examples-4147222

Duncan, A. (2021, February 17). Life Skills to Start Teaching Your Kids at an Early Age.

Retrieved from https://www.verywellfamily.com/teaching-children-life-skills-early-4144959

House, M. S. (n.d.). Why are life skills important? Retrieved from

https://www.macmillanenglish.com/us/blog-resources/article/why-are-life-skills-important

Learning-Liftoff-Staff. (2018, June 11). The Importance of Life Skills-Based Education. Retrieved

from

https://www.learningliftoff.com/the-importance-of-life-skills-based-education/#:~:text=Life

skills provide children with,and fears, for example.

Life Lessons. (2020, January 03). Retrieved from

https://www.suttontrust.com/our-research/life-lessons-workplace-skills/

Thompson, L. (2017, January 19). Learn life skills at home, not at school, twice. Retrieved from

https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/2017/01/15/learn-life-skills-home-school-twice/

96414090/