Brophy prides itself as a college preparatory. The classes are college prep level, the campus is the size of a small college campus, and even the class schedule mimics that of a college. But Brophy shouldn’t be focusing on preparing students for college, they should be preparing students for life after college.

Most students aren’t going to use physics in their daily adult lives unless they go into a field of engineering. They’re going to have to learn how to manage money, pay taxes, and work a job. Having a schedule that feels like a college schedule or having course loads that feel like college isn’t going to help that.

There are plenty of kids that go to regular public schools that are able to succeed in college and they didn’t have a block schedule, didn’t have as many AP courses, and just didn’t have the resources that Brophy has.

With that being said, I’m not saying that Brophy should change its block schedule or that Brophy isn’t helpful towards college, but that they should also help with teaching students meaningful concepts that will help them survive in the “real world.”

A money managing class or finance class would be helpful. Maybe an intro to entrepreneurship could get students invested in starting their own business. In general, there should be more classes about the impact money has on our society and how to manage it properly.

Our summit this year is about debt and that might better educate students on how to manage money, but having semester or year long classes about money management and business would be much more impactful than two weeks of forcing this information down students’ throats just for them to forget it a week later.

Brophy needs to prioritize the one thing that most schools aren’t prioritizing: helping students succeed in the real world, not just college.