Practical skills: Perhaps education should have more life skills factored in

English and math are important, no question about it.

But perhaps the story of Ivey Nagypal and Morgan Rigsby might suggest that there are other skills we should help our children learn -- whether it be at home, at church or at school.

Miss Rigsby learned CPR in school as a requirement for graduation.

And a few weeks ago, she used it to save a life.

But that is not the only fact that is remarkable about Miss Rigsby's story. It is how maturely and calmly she handled what was, no doubt, a very scary situation for anyone, let alone an 18-year-old.

Sometimes we worry too much about keeping our children -- kids. We don't always talk to them about situations they might encounter or the realities of living in a world where things can happen at any minute.

It is hard to figure out what to warn them about, what to prepare them for -- and when to do it.

Miss Rigsby's story suggests that perhaps life skills -- like CPR, first aid, what to do when you are faced with a real emergency, are as critical as math problems and verb conjugations.

At the very least, practical training like this might help some teens develop a little more sense of what adulthood is like.

And, who knows, it might even save a life.

Published in Editorials on June 17, 2013 10:55 AM