Most adults and college graduates would agree that half of what you learn in college comes from outside classrooms and beyond the words of a textbook. Yes, I'm referring to those life lessons such as how to unclog the toilet, cook a semi-decent meal, iron a dress shirt that has been sitting in the closet for 6 months, and countless other learn-as-you-go experiences. I do not see a Life Lessons 101 class listed on next Fall's timetable, but it should be. It is equally important to learn how to prepare a healthy meal as it is to solve linear equations or discuss the English Reformation.
Many students go through grade school, especially high school, with the notion that they are prepared for what lies ahead in the following years. Once stepping foot away from home, however, students are faced with real life dilemmas and problems that don't have answers in the back of the book. While there is some merit to learning for yourself how to deal with such situations, the University should provide a class that runs through many basic problems and issues of common day life. The syllabus could include cooking, cleaning, and fixing. Cooking is obvious, we could all use a lesson in how to grill, saute, fry, or roast. Cleaning would revolve around how take care of clothes and other tricks in removing spots, spills, or stains. Finally, fixing will consist of how to fix basic home appliances such as toilets, heaters, circuits, air conditioners and how to repair broken cabinets, doors, doorknobs, windows, etc.
Grading, you ask? Easy. Come to class, practice, ask questions and apply the lectures to everyday situations. I'm confident that most students would initially heckle at the idea of taking a class on plumbing toilets, but I'm also confident that 10 years after graduation when the heater dies in the middle of a snow storm those same students would give serious thought to what they learned in Life Lessons 101. How many students will remember the quadratic formula or dates of King Henry VIII's reign once they hand in their final exams? Not many. But, a trick in removing red wine from a white dress or a lesson in how to cook salmon for a special someone will most certainly be retained well past the blue books are due.
The obvious roadblock in implementing such classes are those people who claim that all of the above mentioned lessons can be learned without spending thousands of dollars. Yes, they can, and people can still sweat in their homes while they pay a good sum to the local air conditioner expert to get the AC fixed.
Neil Berg
Sophomore, UW-Madison
