According to Lakota’s Portrait of a Graduate, graduating Seniors are going into one of four career paths: Employment, Enrollment, Enlistment, and Entrepreneurship. Employment is getting a job, Enrollment is going to college, Enlistment is serving in the military, and Entrepreneurship is starting your own business. Pretty straightforward. The question is; is Lakota West supplying students with the tools necessary to succeed as adults?

As much as principal Ben Brown touts Lakota West as “the #1 school in Butler County,” many students don’t feel that’s really the case, especially when it comes to the curriculum. Students complain the curriculum is “too specialized at times” and they aren’t getting the skills they need to be successful in the future. One student said that “financially I’ve learned almost nothing on how to survive on my own- I’ve had to teach myself.” It seems like the curriculum is more directed towards a grade on a test rather than preparing oneself for the real world. So maybe students are prepared for enrollment, but not the other three paths.

Although Lakota West offers a wide range of career readiness classes such as financial literacy and planning, people rarely take that class, and some students don’t believe that they teach helpful skills or set people up for success in the future. As for people looking to enlist into the military, high school does not offer anything related to that apart from weight lifting. Reeva Allgood, a senior, expanded on the idea of why she chose the National Guard for financial reasons. During the summer of her junior year, she took the initiative and spent her entire summer in Missouri for basic training. While there she said that she wishes Lakota West would have mentally prepared her for what was to come in the military. In her time at Lakota West, she said that “I am looking to become a combat engineer so for me, the math classes were extremely helpful” many other students agreed with that statement and said that math classes and language arts prepared them well. 

Overall, Lakota West offers classes that are intended to prepare students for their future but because of the wide range of careers, the attempt comes up short and is only helpful in 1 or 2 categories. In conclusion, even though I love Lakota West, it’s far from perfect.