With the Life Skills program at Free World U, our goal is not to simply produce academically educated students who are ready for college. Our goal is to produce young people who are ready for life. This is the objective of our Life Skills curriculum. With this curriculum, we seek to make a real, measurable difference in how young people look at and react to the world around them.

The Life Skills program includes the arts, health, practical economics, character development, interpersonal relations, courtship, family and parenting, and a survey of occupations.

The guiding idea of practical economics is to level the playing field and eliminate the current world of haves and have-nots. We plan to produce a generation of haves who will see being financially productive not as materialistic, but rather as a realistic goal, and as a means to change their world in positive ways. We provide not only an understanding of economics, but a variety of courses in teamwork, entrepreneurship, and business management because we know that young minds are capable of understanding complex ideas if the ideas are presented at the student’s level in a way that grabs his or her imagination.

Children are unique and wonderful. Each has a different path to follow. We will help them find this path and make traveling it easier. Our survey of careers helps students see what is available. This survey will continue to grow to cover as many career paths as possible. Not every student will want to go into a professional career. We help students to see that this is okay. Not everyone is meant to be a doctor or a lawyer; the world needs cooks and carpenters, too.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that “…one in 11 teens report being hit or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend at least once in the past 12 months.” The CDC further states that “Kids who report being physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past year are more likely to report unhealthy behaviors like binge drinking, suicide attempts, and physical fighting.” These are alarming and distressing statistics. We address this head-on by discussing healthy relationships. Our Life Skills curriculum covers courtship, marriage, family, and parenting skills. We offer a parenting skills class for the parents as well as students.

Through teaching our students critical thinking skills, we teach them to pay attention to the world around them. Critical thinking includes problem-solving abilities and the ability to communicate effectively. It also involves the ability to overcome egocentric thinking. Our current educational system’s focus on standardized testing diverts their attention from most of the problems of real life. We solve this problem by creating a learning system that is so fast and efficient that students can learn the material addressed in standardized tests and have plenty of time left over to experience a healthy childhood and prepare for the challenges that lay ahead.

The National Institute of Mental Health website says, “An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.” This is an alarming statistic and one that must be addressed with young people today. The roots of mental illness lay in the environment in the formative years of a child's life. We teach students to recognize and cope with stress and depression and how to get help.

Last, but in no way least, traditional schooling has moved away from allowing any sort of recreational time for children. Psychologists say that play is the work of childhood, yet in our public schools, recesses are being eliminated. Cafeterias are policed by teachers, and conversation is discouraged and at times forbidden. Music and art classes are often a thing of the past. Children are being marched from one class to the next without being allowed any time to express themselves or learn to be creative. Our Life Skills curriculum will guide students into the world of self-expression and self-realization through its rich offerings in music, art history, and architecture. It will allow students to see the world of possibilities that exists and their place in it.