How many students can confidently say they know and understand financial responsibility or home management? Although many schools don’t offer home economics classes anymore, that doesn’t mean that students don’t need classes like it. 

This year, Wilsonville High School switched it up and added a required class called Life. It is required for all grade levels. The purpose of life class is to help students navigate school, with freshmen learning things like high school study tips, to seniors learning how to apply to college. 

However, many students hoped that they would learn other useful life skills, like understanding how to file taxes, or responsible money management.

Joren Lundberg, a junior, shares her thoughts about what she would hope an “adulting” class would look like. Lundberg explains, “I think that’s kinda been the goal of what life class has been, but so far, it hasn’t been a lot of the skills we’ve been hoping to learn.” 

Lundberg continues to explain, “I think for a lot of people taxes are a big thing, like to learn how to do taxes, but I also think learning different life skills like  how to cook a meal for yourself or even learning how to do the laundry.”

Lundberg adds that she would like to learn “things that people are going to have to do for themselves, like things they don’t do now.” 

Sophia Levesque, a senior, expresses her concerns about the necessity for this type of class, especially for seniors who will be experiencing going out on their own soon. 

Levesque comments, “Originally, this was the goal for life class, but I don’t feel like they are executing it correctly.” She also adds, “We need to focus more on what we will need to know to succeed by ourselves, and not just what we need to know to prepare for college.” 

Levesque understands the importance of learning about what to expect in college and other things like how to apply, but she also stresses the importance of learning other skills to help us even beyond that. 

So far, life classes have been helpful in preparing us for what we need to understand for school and college, but many students wanted and expected more. They wanted to know what they should expect when they eventually have to provide for themselves and what they need to know when they are an adult.