By Audrey Perry – News
When it comes down to it, the general consensus towards high school preparation for life is a mixed opinion. While the school system sole purpose is to achieve this goal, many students feel very prepared, while others may struggle.
“I think high school is misleading me to believe that life is going to be full of little assignments, when we should focus on the bigger picture, which isn’t just daily homework,” junior Lauren Moon said.
One of the concerns many students face today is that of what happens after high school. When students reach the end of the their four years has the work they have done and the things taught to them really prepared them for what happens when they go to college and in life beyond?
Lincoln High is filled with places and programs where students can find their calling and become involved in the community in clubs such as the African American Caucus, Native American Caucus, Leadership Development Project, Las Razas Unidas, and many others. There are also multiple programs just at Lincoln High that help develop students academically for the real world such as ELL and the IB Program.
2019 senior Angelica Mendoza has experienced this with her involvement with Educators Rising, a program that helps students who are looking to go into the pre-K to 12th grade education profession learn about the career and become prepared for that work experience.
“I feel that Lincoln High has prepared me for life after high school by giving me the chance to participate in clubs such as Educators Rising,” Mendoza said. “It taught me that you have to work hard at a pace to get everything done.”
For many other students, as well, the clubs offered here build a foundation on their interests, to create a base for their future schooling or career.
“High school has allowed me to go into what I have interests in,” senior Anna Robinson said. “High school allows you to develop those interests and turn it into something you would actually like to continue with your career.”
Lincoln High consistently has the resources to ensure our current success in school and even has the right resources to care for many students extra and outside needs, including the LPS Food Market and LHS Clothing Closet. After a culmination of these programs and opportunities are given to students, is it enough to prepare us for the future in the real world, when we have to provide for ourselves? Though the school offers multiple electives and preparatory classes, many students still consider that using the information they have learned here will not be sufficient for them to support themselves as adults in our American society.
“[High school] gives some things we can use in life mostly from electives, but what I want to do in life won’t use much of what I’ve learned so far and I haven’t been taught important things like taxes,” sophomore Jacki Jimenez said.
One of the courses offered at each high school, that is a graduation requirement, does give a foundation for basic knowledge that will be necessary for students as they become functioning members in our adult society. According to the course description set by LPS on their website, the aims of Take Charge include objectives that consists of this agenda.
Students will set goals and adjust their personal learning plan by identifying their interests, skills and values through academic and career decision-making. Students will develop understanding and skills in money management, budgeting, financial goal attainment, use of credit, insurance, investments, and consumer rights and responsibilities. This class creates an effective transition from high school to postsecondary options.”
This course and other business classes will help students in areas such as balancing a checkbook and learning how to pay taxes, among other necessary skills that will help students function.
Still students who are wary of understanding taxes and interacting independently with the governmental system, will learn these skills through their civics classes and Take Charge.
“I don’t know how to survive as an American citizen,” junior Nina Friedman said. “For example, I don’t know how to pay taxes, I’m not super sure how the government works even after taking civics, I don’t know how to sign a lease, or make my own bank account. I am basically clueless on how to give the American government the money it demands from me every month, second, and hour that I live.”
Friedman will have the opportunity to learn some more of these foundations and skills in the next two years of her high school experience, hopefully with enough of a base for her to be prepared to manage on her own.
In other ways, the courses are helpful in determining students’ skill set that will help them take the classes they need suited to their needs and showing students how to already take a step in getting involved outside of school and in the community.
“[High School has helped] in the way of showing [me] how to get a job, and what do I need to do to get to college,” 2019 senior Arya Ebrahimi Kamirani said. “Doing volunteer work outside of the school was so helpful for me to understand responsibility.”
Aside from the course content and opportunities at Lincoln High, one thing to be noted in the long stretch of preparing people for high school is the support of teachers and administrators.
“I have some teachers who treat us as a college students to get us ready,” 2019 senior Ghada Al-Qaysi said. “I have my counselor who was basically an advisor for me and helped me get caught up when I came here just two years ago.”
Junior Anaka Wamstead-Evans transferred from Southeast High School, this school year and her transition to Lincoln High changed her outlook on the future with the help of teachers and administrators.
“I am prepared because I have met so many people who are so amazing and helpful,” Wamstead-Evans said. “It has opened my eyes to try different things for a career.”
On top of interacting with teachers and administrators, students are given the opportunity to intermix with students from multiple, diverse backgrounds. They can become more worldly and learn how to live and function in a diverse and changing society through their day to day interactions with one another. Through these interactions they can establish the skills they need to become successful in the “real world”.
While its up to each individual to decide whether or not high school has prepared them for life, there are a lot of factors to consider in self-discipline, effort, but also the assistance of the public school system. When focusing on their own success, students will most likely be prepared for what occurs after high school.
