I’m a senior, and I have no idea how taxes work. Or buying a house, or insurance or stocks and bonds. These are the things I actually need to know, and soon. Do we really need to know the Pythagorean Theorem? Or that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell? Or about Romeo and Juliet and why their families had beef? Because honestly, I couldn’t care less. We’re high schoolers, almost onto the next phase of life, and we are not being taught the things that we truly need to know. I wish I could have learned about paying taxes, buying a house, saving money and more, but instead, I — along with other high schoolers everywhere — am now stuck on my own. We’re trying to figure it all out for ourselves because schools have failed to teach us and life is happening. It’s happening soon.

Instead of teaching us the periodic table and complicated algebra problems, why can’t we learn how to properly handle money and financial needs, or how credit cards work or how to get a job? The list could go on forever. A study conducted in April of 2013 revealed that more than 25 percent of high schoolers feel like they don’t have basic financial skills needed for adulthood. The study also found that 83 percent of students want personal finance classes to be mandated in school. Since our current education system is lacking, students are left stressed and worried about life after high school. If we were actually taught these things, graduation would be considerably less stressful than it is now.

Stuck in a culture of book-smart lessons, us students are being left behind in learning real life knowledge and missing out on important life skills needed for after graduation. Schools are still using the same curriculum taught years ago, and it is not helping. There comes a point where enough is enough, and the subjects taught in school just become useless.

The Carlsbad School District needs to start focusing on teaching their students useful life skills rather than pointless lessons that will be of no help to them in the future. Opening classes that cover topics such as financial needs, housing, work, insurance and more would be greatly beneficial for students as they are heading into adulthood. Instead of forcing students to go through multiple years of math and science classes, schools should expand the curriculum for classes such as government and economics, and classes like child development and home economics.

If schools began teaching their students more common knowledge instead of complicated algebraic problems, students would be much better off on their journey to adulthood.