UNC should teach life skills

(This piece is a tongue-in-cheek editorial I wrote for class. Although not completely serious--I don't think students should get college credit for learning how to use a toaster--there certainly is value in knowing basic "life skills," particularly housekeeping skills. The inspiration for this piece came after saving a friend from microwaving broccoli in a metal mixing bowl earlier this week.) 

“UNC should teach life skills”

By Eric Surber

Undergrads will take about 40 classes to receive a liberal arts degree at UNC. The liberal arts education exposes students to different disciplines, requiring classes in arts, science, history and politics, etc., to help develop “strong practical skills that span all major fields of study.” To students’ peril, however, this education lacks one key curriculum: life skills.

Many undergrads are dependent before college, relying on their parents for food, housing and health insurance. Unfortunately, a first year’s blissful dependency ends around August 20 when the minivan drives home, leaving a naïve adolescent to discover the scary realities of living alone. Learning interpersonal communication, financial management and domestic skills is usually a trial-and-error process without the university’s support.

A report prepared by the UNC Department of Environment, Health and Safety reveals that developing life skills, especially domestic skills, is more error than trial. During the past three years, firefighters have responded to 16 fires in housing communities. Only one—a dryer fire—wasn’t a student’s fault, while the other 15 students started in kitchens.

Students left dishcloths on stovetops and grease on hot burners, which later ignited. The report says pizza boxes set ovens (emphasis on the plurals) aflame. Undergrads are putting cardboard in the oven, and everyone should be concerned.

The problem doesn’t improve when students move off campus. When students can use toaster ovens, hot plates and candles, without residential housing association rules and an RA, the risks increase. Fraternity houses are notorious for poor housekeeping, which was sited as a cause for the 1996 fire that killed five UNC students at Phi Gamma Delta.

The Centers for Disease Control would issue a crisis alert if they studied how many students wash their sheets only once a year or bathe with moldy towels. Many students still graduate college not knowing how to properly operate a washing machine or boil water without an instructional YouTube video. And only 24 percent feel prepared to handle post-graduation financial challenges.

The liberal arts education should not just open student’s minds to the world, but teach students how to thrive while living in it. The curriculum should include life skills. College graduates would be cleaner, wealthier, smell nicer, look nicer and speak better, while maybe avoiding a few kitchen fires.