Where are the Classes on Life?

I'm almost 23 years old, living in Toronto, educated in the Western society school system, for lack of a better term. I still remember all of my university days, most of my high school days, and a few even before that. But when I turned 18, I realized one thing: I'm supposed to be an adult at this age. The legal system has said: "17 years and 364 days, CHILD!...but 18 years and 0 days, welcome to adulthood. Welcome to doing your taxes, making your own doctors appointments, signing forms, and swiftly moving out. Still can't drink or gamble, but you can fight in the military and vote for your government. Congratulations!". But all I know at this point is how to calculate the hypotenuse of a triangle, interpret Shakespeare, and predict chemical reactions. How the f*** do I fill out a tax form? Where the f*** do I find the laws surrounding tenant rights that apply when living on the top floor of a subletted house with 3 other hooligans? Who the f*** even are the government and why am I, an adult with no adulting ability, voting for them? 

Now I know what some may say: "you can just google it" or "some things you need to learn on your own" or even "your parents can teach you that, that's not the school systems' job". But unlike the intricacies of the right angle triangle and Newton's Laws of gravity, we all need to know how to file taxes, manage bills, write resumés, and cook food. Why do we put so much emphasis on things that are not applicable for every student? And to further respond to the potential nay-sayers, not everyone has that foundation where their families can readily teach them all of these things. Some parents may have not grown up in the same system as their kids and things are a learning curve for them as much as it is for us, others may be working a lot to raise their family and don't have the time to really sit down and practice with their kids. Secondly, not everyone has the facilities to learn it on their own. It's one thing to use a trusty search engine to give you a step-by-step, but some things need real practice, others may need to be tailored to the needs of the individual. And yes, not all of us go to school or stay in school but for the time that those of us do, it would be nice to be equipped with tools we need for when we're on the other side of secondary school.

Me, I had the benefit of being thrown into the deep end to flounder for some things, but for others, I was able to have support from people around me in learning these things. I've come to the point where I can safely say I am functional as an adult human. I recently sat down and talked to a friend who was navigating the university application process and I realized just how much disparity there is in what people know about the real world, and to no fault of myself or my friend. I spent time explaining T4s (employment income tax slip), a curriculum vitae (CV) versus a resumé, and what resources were there when it came down to finding a place to live. Eventually, he managed to find his way to the most ideal situation to start school and thanked me for teaching him "basically how to apply and not die before university started.".

I look back at the high school I went to and it was a good school, don't get me wrong, but I realized that my mandatory options were all the basics in math and science and English and there was not even an optional class for whether you wanted to learn about finances or basic laws or home ownership or hell, even car maintenance and insurance policy. Honestly, I've had more people around my age tell me they registered these holes in their knowledge when the problem that needed said knowledge first hit them. Only recently have I heard that Ontario (the province where Toronto is) has initiated a financial literacy class, mandatory for high school students. That's definitely a start in the right direction. But there's still so much that could be made available for students to ready themselves for the day they exit the childhood phase.

When I started writing this, it came out of a thought. A thought that I realized is true for a lot of people which is we're not all on the same playing field. For some of these concepts, that's fine! We don't all need to know how to make a simple electrical circuit or create soap. But for the essential knowledge and life skills, there really should be something for kids to prepare themselves. Because by and large, adulthood is scary! Well, not really, but it does have a lot with respect to responsibility as well as independence. We can make a little easier right out the gate with some classes on life. Why not?