Colin Richins

Doctor Breeanne Matheson

English 2010

Oct 2019

Teaching Life Skills and Personal Direction

What does society expect from highschool graduates? We are in a society that expects

functioning adults with life skills, but never teaches those skills and ignores the benefits of doing

so. Skills such as social skills (stress, and anger management), self efficacy, and personal

direction are needed curriculum in our education system. Sadly most schools don’t offer such

courses, and in some cases where schools offer options, those classes are on the chopping block.

Let’s explore the effect of students life skills courses ability to change students’ behavior.

In a paper studying the inability of highschool students to deal with stress, they found significant

benefit to courses teaching coping, social, and aggression control skills. Over the course of the

study, there was a reported drop of 55.6% showing signs of aggression, down to 41.4% showing

signs of aggression (Javidi et al, 123). Furthermore Social Skill significantly increased among

the group as well as Javidi et al. also discovered an increase of problem focused strategies and

decrease of emotion focused strategies (Javidi et al. 126). These researchers concluded the study

with a view of the “necessity of implement[ing] life skills instructional programs for better and

comprehensive development of learners” (Javidi et al. 128) and by creating systems to teach

students in an outcome focused environment, we can prepare students to keep functioning

entirely on their own. The Life Centered Career Education (LCCE) is one such environment.
Through programs such as the LCCE we see the effect of these outcome focused systems in

more self-efficiency of students. Self efficacy serves as a rough gauge for high confidence as

well as self determination, and as such is a fundamental component of self determined

individuals (Aguilar 5). The LCCE lists 22 outcomes that are crucial for students to improve

their self efficacy, and thus become successful citizens. These 22 skills include (but are not

limited to) personal finance, caring for personal needs, communication skills, and self awareness

(Aguilar 18). Through teaching students these life skills, and giving them focus and direction,

which many young students feel they are missing.

Many young people, ranging from early highschool, to late college, do not know where they are

going in life, or what they want to do. Society expects a lot from a new adult, expecting them to

start a career, secondary schooling, dating/marriage, buying a house, and living in a completely

different environment. But one in five young people aged 12-22 don’t know where they’re going

or who they are (Haskell, Preparing Students for Life?).

Kristie Haskell, a professional life coach, believes that in order to give these students directions

in their lives, they must have a life planning seminar or an active coach. She posed questions to

the students strategically to get them to think of where they want to go. In a short six hour

seminar, 50 highschoolers learned to assess reality, how to approach their futures, and reflect

on/draw connections from their past (Haskell, Preparing Students for Life?). There is a call for

courses to teach this. A call for students to be given direction. This can be achieved.
We can provide society what it not only wants but needs, functioning adults who can problem

solve, communicate, and have direction. In order to do this though young people must be taught,

and no longer just be expected to have learned it. As schools become ever closer to the parental

role in our society it must accept the role in entirety, and teach children how to survive in our

ever changing world.

 Works Cited

Aguilar, Sunddip Panesar, and Erick Aguilar. “Evaluating a Life Centered Career Education
Curriculum to Support Student Success.” Research in Higher Education Journal, vol. 35, Oct.
2018. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1194445&site=eds-live.

Javidi, Khodakhast, and Gholamreza Garmaroudi. “The Effect of Life Skills Training on Social
and Coping Skills, and Aggression in High School Students.” Novelty in Biomedicine, vol. 7, no.
3, Summer 2019, p. 121. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=138267592&site=eds-live.

Haskell, Kristie. “Preparing Students for Life?” Independent School, vol. 73, no. 3, Spring 2014,
pp. 112–120. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=94717533&site=eds-live.