By: Abisola Dosunmu

High school is a time for learning, a time where you learn to develop your social skills, a time for new extracurricular activities, loads of homework, new responsibilities, and also new experiences. The last compulsory education in America. Students spend on average 30 hours each week in class, proceeding from one class to the next. 

But does all that really prepare highschoolers for college?

After graduating, young adults are expected to know what to do next. The next step forward differs for everyone, but some decide to join the military, some decide to study abroad, some decide to take a gap year, some go to college, and some start working.  The data shows that the students that graduated in 2019 report that 66.2 percent of graduates decided to continue their post secondary education.

For many of the students that continue on to college, college is usually a major transition. Students go from small classes, structured time periods, and little to no actual expenses to classes ranging around 100+ students, all of a sudden you can take classes in the evening, and this scary thing called student loans is looming up at you in the distance.

High school ideally will have prepared students for these new changes and challenges, but is that what’s really happening? 

Are students really learning anything in high school? While In school, students are taught basic science, history, language arts and math, but are they teaching students the skills they need to succeed in real world situations? Students are taught how to memorize information, not really saying anything about absorbing it. At least, not absorbing it enough to be able to remember and apply to real world situations. Are most of us really going to remember, use and apply, the use of simultaneous equations we learned in 8th grade? No, I don’t think so. I’m not saying that what they’re teaching us isn’t important, because it is, but educators need to realize it’s not the only life skill students need. 

Students should be taught how to manage their time, learn how to do taxes, develop conversation skills, and writing skills, which, yes, is taught in English, but teachers need to devote more time to teach students how to write resumes and college essays (whether or not they decide to pursue higher education), and how to handle money.

Classes like home ec. should be offered in more schools to teach basic skills like how to cook, how to fix things, how to be more responsible about safety, basically how to manage a household for people who don’t plan on living with their parents forever. Even if it’s just an apartment, students need to learn how to take care of their living space and the rent.

Students should be taught more life skills devoid of the usual math, science and English classes. We need to learn about life outside of school, because that’s basically what going to school is for. To prepare kids for adulthood. 

All of this cycles back to my question. Are students really prepared for college or life? I honestly think educators could do a better job of preparing students for real life, not just hammering algebraic expressions into our heads or making us reread and re-examine “The Lottery” in English. Educators need to start thinking about things that would actually benefit students in the future besides the usual classes. Skills that will not only be beneficial in college, but in life as well. 

For more information, please visit: 

• https://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm?scrlybrkr=f20c5174
• https://www.kings.edu/admissions/hs_sophomores_and_juniors/preparing_for_college/high_school_vs_college
• https://www.gcu.edu/blog/gcu-experience/are-high-school-students-college-ready

Editor’s Note: The Plaid Line publishes editorials that contain opinions that are those of the student authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the the Plaid Line, HPSH, or its staff.

By: Irene Cohen

For those who weren’t aware, Scott Jensen and Matt Birk are running for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively. As a brief overview of both candidates, Scott Jensen is an unvaccinated family physician whose license to practice has been under investigation multiple times, which we will get into later. Matt Birk is an ex-NFL player for the Minnesota Vikings. A charming pair to become administrative leaders in Minnesota.

To delve a bit deeper into Scott Jensen’s policies and ideas, let’s look at his 5th medical board investigation. Already showing a propensity towards abuse of power before he even becomes governor, Jensen says in a social media post that the medical board “will be dealt with” if he becomes governor. He is already showing he can’t take criticism and will exert political power over those who publicly go against him.

Jensen and Birk both have a nasty habit of drawing false equivalences on serious and tragic matters. Jensen compared public COVID-19 health measures to Nazi Germany in a video from an April Mask Off MN event, a sentiment that minimizes the genocide of millions of Jews.

Birk continued this theme of almost trivializing the biggest genocides in history by comparing abortion to slavery when he spoke at a National Right to Life conference. He also said the following at that very same conference “Women used to not be able to vote, now we let them drive”. I encourage you to read a transcript, or watch this video of him speaking, because it is full of similar sentiments and it would take too long to go through them all.

Scott and Matt have no issue taking issues that they don’t care about and using them to their own advantage to try and make the causes they believe in seem more tragic than they are.

Matt Birk truly has a way with words, saying at the same Right to Life event, that women play the “rape card” in order to excuse their abortion. He compares the act of having an abortion to rape. He also insinuated that American culture encourages and brainwashes women into having abortions, and careers. He thinks that motherhood isn’t celebrated enough and that instead women are being told to get careers. I find this disturbing because he is a father, but he has a career. Does he not believe that fathers should care for their children just as much as a mother would?

Jensen proves that he will continue his self serving policies should he become governor. Jensen says he plans to pull funds from public schools in an interview with MPR, while his running-mate Matt Birk is a co-owner/founder of a private school in Burnsville. These two claim they understand the education system, but both have enough money to send all of their children to private schools.

The United States is already a pay to win society, and by pulling even more money from the public education system, they want to exacerbate that. By taking away resources from those of us who can’t afford to send our children to private institutions, they ensure that the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich.

Overall, the views that Jensen and Birk share are extremely reactionary and conservative. Their primary platforms are posed as moral issues, often rooted in their religious beliefs. They are self interested and only care about the “issues” of the rich, white, conservative, people of Minnesota. The don’t seem to understand, or care, about the struggles of the average Minnesotan citizen, whose quality of life will surely be affected negatively should Jensen and Birk win the ballot in November.

If you are 18 years or older, register to vote and protect your rights.

For more information, please visit:

• https://twitter.com/MinnesotaDFL/status/1549453379507818496?s=20&t=G1W2dhPD-5eRLSM4viMCCg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXqFGlQ0hec

By: Caelyn Hippen

Does education affect the economy?

Does the amount of homework we get every night affect how well we do?

What determines the success of an education program?

These are questions you may ask yourself about your education, and the economy of the city, state, country, and world you live in.

Research states that education boosts and raises productivity. Education also stimulates productivity. I think that education can either make or break someone. It could impact an individual by making them more independent, help them have better time management, and help them have more drive and motivation towards their goals.

But, it could also break someone. Education, especially during a global pandemic, can cause anxiety, and lots of stress. The amount of concentration and focus class and homework combined require is already a lot, but then to have the social pressures of high school is insane.

In my head, the economy impacts education as much as education impacts the economy. If the economy is bad and there isn’t much money to spend on education, chances are the education system won’t be as good as a school in a city with a good economy and more money to spend on education.

An interesting thing I learned about education while researching is that levels of education vary around the world as a result of the countries varying development priorities. For example, if you lived in a country where farming is very important, chances are you will learn lots about agriculture and the environment. Whereas, if someone else lives in an industrialized city/state, they may learn more about large company things such as finance and building businesses.

I also learned that the culture and history of a country can play a huge part in what schooling means to them.

These are some of the ways that education can affect and impact the economy.