Student Engagement Levels

As young adults prepare for their futures after high school, many are left without the skill set they need to ready themselves for what lies ahead. Skills such as resuming building, financial planning, and interview tactics are not taught in school curriculums and instead are required to be self-taught, often without guidance or the resources needed for thorough and accurate knowledge. When we look to develop our future generations into successful and prosperous adults, we must consider how we are setting them up for success in regards to these life skills, especially for when they leave the regimented constructs of their high-school education that provides hands-on explanations that can provide a deeper level of learning. The overall goal

It is especially important to engage and reach the teens who live under the poverty line, as their rates of dropout are much higher than those who do not live in financial hardships. It is important that schools provide support and guidance, specifically involving the instruction of life skills, to these students that are in high-risk situations, as these teens are statistically more likely to drop away from schooling leaving them undereducated. As noted in the article Arkansas City High School: A Lifetime of Learning , by James Rourke and Marlene Hartzman, life classes can bring the additional needed support to teens, as they are often the “hook to keep students in school - to break their cycle of failure and provide a safety net so they will graduate” (Rourke and Hartzman, par. 20). This tells us that we must offer life classes to engage students and ready them for their adult lives, which ensures that we are providing the best possible future for all teens regardless of economic class. This level of engagement is crucial in the development of young adults as it dictates how likely they are to be engaged with their secondary schooling and

The ability to access and utilize online resources for the education of life classes, instead of a hands-on approach, is a common, but unsupported reason for denying that these classes be available to students. As noted in the article, Narrowing the Digital Divide in Low-Income, Urban Communities , by Daniel T. Norris, a doctoral student in the Adult and Continuing Education Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Simone Conceicao, an assistant professor of Adult Education and Technology in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Department of Administrative Leadership, "It is important that [we are] aware of the factors and obstacles that limit access and usage of information technology by adults. Statistics show that use of information technology by adults in an urban setting is a product of access" (Norris and Conceicao 78). This indicates that although the convenience of learning on-demand through technology is a tempting way of offering education, it is not a way to reach the majority of people who need this life-changing information. Statistically, "the typical computer user in the United States is white, between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four, college educated, and married with an annual household income above $75,000" (Norris and Conceicao 70).