Analyzing how public city schools are preparing students for adulthoods
Tax, Logical, Financial, and Career classes are subjects that I wish I’ve taken when going to a public city school. Most classes I have taken in high school have not applied to my adulthood and college career. After graduation, most of my issues that I have had come from basic adult activities. Things such as filing my taxes correctly, taking the proper steps into a career, making intelligent moves to be financially free, and overall making logical decisions was a hard transition. These subjects I think should be taught in the public school system. Having these classes in schools can help change the notorious saying the public school system failed me. Instead of systematically preparing many students of color to fail, it’s time to prepare them with this knowledge at a young age so they can break generational curses.
After graduating from high school, I had to do my taxes for the first time after working a job that wasn’t apart of summer youth. When working at this job, I never put that I didn’t want withholding from my paychecks. The only thing I was looking for on my paystubs was to see if the hours I worked were correctly added up. Everything else was arbitrary to me, and I had no desire even to know what “withholding” was. While approaching the end of filing my taxes on TurboTax, I was shown on the website that I owed the IRS over two thousand dollars because I hadn’t paid any federal tax from my paychecks. It was one of the hardest payments to pay back at 18, with a part-time job only receiving minimum wage. Some people are blessed to have family or someone to help understand taxes, but most of the time, it’s not explained in detail the same way it could be in school. Having a tax class in high school could have stopped me from making this mistake. In high school, we should know the basics of filing taxes and why we pay them.
Financial and career literacy classes should be taught in high school. Financial literacy is defined as understanding and effectively using various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. It’s something that high schoolers should be proficient in because it a vital skill needed not to mismanage their money. Lessons such as stocks, real estate, APR debit/credit cards, etc., are what this students would learn. When young adults get their first credit card, they overspend because they know they don’t have to pay back the amount in full anytime soon. It isn’t until it’s too late they realize it hurts their credit score, and they are forced to pay an enormous amount on down payments. Career literacy is defined as aiming to inform people on choosing a career and deciding the course of action to reach their goals. Implementing this subject into students’ classes, may help them find their passion at an early age. Working at a grocery store in high school did not motivate me to think about my career, and not having programs in school did not help me find my niche. It was only afterward, as a junior in college I realized that I have to do something besides work and go to school to be in a promising career. Thanks to my critical thinking, I realized that I had a love for writing and should do what I have to do to be an author. I wish I would have had this discovery in high school to have more experience in the field. Having career and financial literacy is essential to many public schools, especially for people of color.
These classes are subjects that I feel should be taught in schools. They prepare high schoolers for the adult world. It adds more meaning to what a public city school is and may promote financial freedom before 25 for high schoolers. A logic class would also be great to introduce public schools as well. Many young people like me get most news and current events from social media that is arguably not true most of the time. A logic class can introduce the thinking to do research and create premises to understand what’s factual or propaganda.
Malik is an upcoming graduate writer that loves to talk about people of color worldwide.