7A - Testing the Hypothesis Part 1

High School Class Designed to Teach Students Essential Life Skills

• Students aren't properly prepared for the real world when they graduate high school and could use assistance in tackling life's daily challenges
• The what: Since high school hasn't taught students life skills, they feel unprepared for the world
• The who: High School Students
• The why: Either schools don't feel responsible for departing this knowledge for students, the complexity of how to design the course plan, or insufficient funding

• Testing the what: The boundaries of the need are partially unclear because there are so many possible answers. Boundaries can include exactly what would be taught and the extent of the detail of each such as filling out tax forms, paying a mortgage, how to apply for loans, how to pick the right credit card company, and how to choose the best insurance - there isn't an exact answer to all of these situations and some are subjective.
• Testing the who: College students have this need as well as high school students who didn't go to college. Eventually everyone has this need.
• Testing the why: Schools may recognize that some students end up learning the knowledge from their parents and therefore don't feel responsible for teaching the students this valuable information. Moreover, how the schools would go about introducing the course can be ambiguous such as making the class required or as an elective, how they evaluate a student's knowledge of these skills, etc.

• Interview #1
• I asked a female college freshman and she never considered the high school class because she never considered it a possibility. To combat the problem now she would ask family or Google it herself. She believes that a class hasn't been implemented yet because schools assume that family or reliable resources teach students. Possible problems that could arise in designing the class is that there is too many personal details and too many ways to solve a problem. 
• Interview #2
• I asked a male college freshman and he would usually ask his parents or do online research to combat the problem. People who could be affected is young adults who may have not been responsible for major life responsibilities. Demographic wise it mainly affects middle-class and upper middle class in suburban neighborhoods. He believes that a class hasn't been implemented yet because schools are underfunded and the current state of education is more focused on the state curriculum and having good standardized test scores to gain more funding. Possible problems that could arise in designing the class is that not many people would take it because they wouldn't take it seriously or would consider it worthless, having someone to teach it in a school setting, and not needing it to be a full-on class, it could be an after school program administered in a more effective way instead.
• Interview #3
• I asked a male college senior and he mainly learned from YouTube and thinks that students wouldn't take the class because they won't view it as important as other subjects. Possible problems include everyone having different learning styles and problems with methods of teaching the material.
• Interview #4
• I asked a father and he expressed the need for awareness of life skills because if not, it could be detrimental for those involved. He also highlighted the importance of knowing personal finance such as saving, building credit score, how to utilize the right financial strategies, and what to look out for/avoid. In the past, he had to ask people with good financial history for help and hire an accountant. Reasons why a class like that has failed in the past is because the class wasn't as popular, wasn't relevant at the time, and wasn't well publicized. Possible solutions include making it mandatory for high school seniors b/c not everyone goes to college and in college, make it more in depth.
• Interview #5
• I asked a mother and she expressed that possible barriers are that students don't think about needing life skills at that age and since it's not required to learn, students rely more on their parents. Possible solutions include having a mandatory session (not necessarily a class) and having a college-level one be more in depth.

• Reflection
• I learned from the interviews that the class could be split into high school and college. The high school course could be a shorter program after school or split into shorter sessions. To guarantee a more effective result, the high school program would be mandatory otherwise the amount of students enrolled in that class would be negligible. The college course would be more in depth to cover specific topics relating to personal finance.