by Eric Goudie

Created on: March 05, 2009

There is only one high school course that should be mandatory. It's called Life 101, and as far as I know there isn't a single high school in the world that is teaching it.

The curriculum of Life 101 borrows a lot from other subject areas: English, math, science, history, geography and many other disciplines form the basic material for the course. But unlike these subject areas the manner in which they are taught, as well as the end purposes for which they are taught, are much different. In Life 101 you will learn everything you need to know.

The course is divided into several modules, and begins with an extensive study of the students themselves. Differences between age, race, gender and sexuality are frankly and thoroughly explained, and a zero-tolerance towards bigotry, hatred, discrimination, stereotyping and persecution is instilled.

The second module moves on to the students' own bodies. Students will discover their own height, weight, BMI and waist-to-hip ratios if they do not already know them, and find out whether they are at, over or under a safe body weight for their age and build. This part of the course will include meal preparation and an excercise program, to make eating well and daily physical activity a part of each student's lifestyle.

Module three deals with sex education in an open, honest, non-judgement format. Attendance is mandatory. Abstinence-only curriculum will not be taught, and students may not be excused on moral or religious grounds. To allow students to skip this material is simply too dangerous.

In module four students must take and pass a course in reading and writing. They must follow a set of written instructions to assemble a product, administer medication to a child, and fill out a twenty page application for employment insurance, a task that will require both personal information and some research.

Module five involves some hard lessons on financial responsibility. Students create real budgets, based on their real current levels of income, and then cut it in half and live on that for the remainder of the module. They will be taught how to build a personal, family and business budget, how to account for their personal finances, and how to prepare their income tax returns. They will be taught how to bank, when and how to borrow money, and how to invest wisely for retirement.

At some point during this time the students will arrive one day to find their teacher gone and the principal in their class. He or she will calmly tell the

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