How does school prepare you for life outside school?

There are some people who claim that school does not make any contribution at all towards preparation for life. In order to back up their argument, they often cite people who did badly at school and yet became very famous or very wealthy in later life. This is a very negative and cynical view of school.

At the very least, school teaches some very basic and vital skills. At an early age we learn such elementary arithmetical skills as adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. We cannot cope very well in life without such skills, especially as far as the handling of money is concerned.

We also learn to read at school and to put our ideas and thoughts in writing. If we are not reasonably adept at reading and writing we will find it difficult to communicate effectively with others. Being illiterate can present adults with extremely difficult problems, and possibly insurmountable, both at work and in a social setting.

Schools usually teach students computer skills. Such skills are invaluable in this technological age because an enormous number of jobs now involve a degree of computing work. The quicker you learn to be computerate, the better.

Like technology, science now plays a much greater role in our day-to-day lives than it ever did before. A basic scientific knowledge acquired at school will keep us better informed as adults. We will be more likely to understand advances in important areas of our life, such as medicine.

Much of the rest of the information which you acquire at school will prove valuable to you in later life. A knowledge of geography will prove useful in these days when so many issues and businesses are becoming global. History may seem a bit less useful, although studying the past can be a fascinating subject. However, we can all, especially politicians, economists and so on, use our knowledge of history to guide us in our handling of the present and the future.

Some of the information learned at school will prove useful in a social situation. Many schools now provide lessons in sex education, with the result that young people now leave school well informed about important issues such as contraception and sexually transmitted diseases.

Of course, you could learn all of these skills outside of a school environment. In some countries of the world home schooling is becoming popular. However, in a school environment you acquire skills and take in information as part of a class. Thus, from a very early age you learn how to work as part of a team. This experience will serve you well when you grow up and become employed, because teamwork is an important part of many modern jobs.

School also imposes a certain amount of personal discipline on students which they will need to put into practice when they are members of a workforce. They have to get to school or work on time and not leave until the end of the working day. If they do not turn up, they must have a cast-iron excuse and they, or their parents, must inform the people in charge.

School also teaches students how to cope with authority in a polite manner and without displaying any resentment. Again, this is a valuable lesson for later life when workers have to follow the boss’s instructions without demur.

These are just some of the ways in which school prepares us for life. Some of us may not consider our schooldays the happiest days of our lives, but they are undeniably useful.