With every new school year there is another class of newly-dubbed seniors. There’s no doubt that senior year causes lots of stress. College applications, advanced classes, and preparation for college and early-adult life are a big part of this stress. This leaves many to wonder: are these students actually being prepared to go off on their own?

Every student has asked a teacher at some point if what they are learning is practical. Classes offered in high school prepare students for life, but not in the ways they sometimes need. They learn the core classes’ lessons, but there is only so much a student can learn that they will actually need in life.

Students are not being prepped for adult life because they are less experienced. This is because sometimes, parents do not realize how much more they know than their kids. They may try to teach their children basic life lessons, but oftentimes do not realize that they could be overwhelmed with knowledge, or perhaps do not understand what they just learned.

High school seniors are not prepared for moving away from home and other independent things because they are oftentimes simply not ready. Routines in life can become habit, and habits might be hard to break. These teenagers can grow accustomed to the way their high school lives are, and how they see their friends and family daily. It can become hard to leave a life one loves.

Lastly, the majority of students are not ready for life beyond high school because they don’t realize how close adult life actually is. Many teenagers are good students and keep their grades up, but get swept up in the “here and now” aspect of high school, instead of planning towards the future. This can affect their lives because they become blindsided when they have graduated.

Those opposed to these viewpoints say that students are just as experienced as their parents; adult life is something one has to jump in to; and high schoolers would be prepared if they didn’t use laziness as an excuse. First, teenagers oftentimes are taught things at a fast pace, which would cause them to be confused about it all. Second, adult life is not like a presentation in front of an audience that lasts three minutes. Adult life, from the moment one graduates high school and then on, does not come to an end, which is why students experience trepidation when transitioning in to adulthood. Third, high schoolers are not lazy, because from the first day of their freshman year to the day of their graduation, they are working their hardest to reach their goals.

To fix these high schoolers’ issue, “practical” classes could be created that would teach all of the things they learn as they go through adulthood, much before. This way, they would know what to expect when the day does come when they move out, and they have skills to deal with things as they happen in their lives.

Students about to graduate high school need to know what to expect when they become adults. If things are continued the way they are now, seniors will remain deer in the headlights.